Veteran’s Story from World War II

November 11, 2009 · Filed under Don't That Beat All

John J. Connelly opened a manila folder and dumped the contents onto the kitchen table in his Northside home.

One of his daughters, visiting from New Jersey, picked something out of the pile and looked at it.

With a smile that conveyed surprise, admiration and maybe even a little bemusement – you think you know your father and then you find out this? – she said, “I’ve never seen any of this.”

Until recently, few people had.

It’s not that Connelly, now a youthful 84 years old, was hiding what was in the envelope.

It’s just that he had tucked it way, and done the same with the memories it represented.

He didn’t talk about the war. But not because the memories were too traumatic. Simply because he came home and got on with his life. He went to college, got married, had children.

So he had been on a plane shot down over Germany, parachuted into a tree, ended up in a massive POW camp, spent 52 days marching hundreds of miles in a brutal winter? Why would he talk about that?

“Everybody who came back had a tale,” he said. “Who wanted to hear another one?”

In 1945, there were indeed stories – wonderful, horrible, heroic stories – on every block in every town. And maybe that explains how more than 50 years after World War II ended, VFW Magazine could write about the “Death March Across Germany,” calling it a “virtually unknown story.”

You would think the sheer numbers of that march across Germany – an estimated 6,000 troops, some walking as much as 600 miles – would ensure it would be remembered forever. But it seemed to do exactly the opposite. Maybe because those who survived didn’t think their experience was that big a deal.

“I didn’t want to go to the VFW hall every Saturday night, drink beer and fight the war all over again,” Connelly said. “I didn’t have time to look back. … I had to pay for the weddings of four daughters.”

His girls, and a son, grew up. His first wife died. He remarried. They moved to Jacksonville three years ago. And as he sat on his patio, he found that he did have time to look back. Which is what led to him digging out the manila envelope.

He decided to write down his memories about the war for his children, 17 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren (with a third on the way). And this was the place to start.

Inside the manila envelope were notes written while lying in a third-tier bunk in a massive German prison camp – and then later, while being forced to march across the countryside.

To call them journals doesn’t do them justice.

That sounds like something you’d buy in a store.

These are scraps of paper. Cigarette rolling paper. A box that had contained Smiles Vanilla Chocolate. An envelope that had contained mail from the U.S. A bowling scorecard without any scores.

In another place and another time, they would have been discarded. But in that place and time – Germany in 1944 and 1945 – they were like little treasures to a teenager from New Jersey.

Read the rest of the story. You won’t regret it.

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Happy Veteran’s Day

November 10, 2009 · Filed under Politicians ain't got no damn sense

I went into a public-’ouse to get a pint o’beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:

O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins,” when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mr. Atkins,” when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-’alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!

For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.

Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.

Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy how’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.

We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints:
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;

While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind,”
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind.

You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.

For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country,” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
But Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool – you bet that Tommy sees!

The betrayal of the armed forces by their government and fellow citizens is an old story. We also have a fifth column news media promulgating the Fort Hood murderer as “victim”, and military officers that turned a blind eye to the self-proclaimed jihadist sympathies of an officer in the name of political correctness. A lot of people need to be fired for this one.

The fifth columnists and politically correct politicians that are so busily inventing excuses for the Al Quaida wannabe better start asking themselves whether a school bus driver might develop sudden jihad syndrome next, or perhaps a police officer, an apartment manager, a schoolteacher, or an airline pilot.

Happy Veteran’s Day.

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Bluetongue Virus and Securing Chickens

November 10, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized

One of my young ewes has been having difficulty breathing for over a week. I initially thought “AHA! Pastuerella pneumonia!” because sheep acquire it when they are under stress. Stressors include changes in weather (check!) or breeding season (check!). Soooo, I treated with antibiotics for 48 hours (no change), changed antibiotics for 24 hours (no change), and then a third antibiotic (no change). It sounded to me as though the difficulty with breathing was from occluded nasal passages (D’OH)! Another cause of difficulty breathing is bluetongue virus. The only treatment is the passage of time.

Clinical signs of bluetongue in sheep include:
:: Eye and nasal discharges;
:: Drooling as a result of ulcerations in the mouth;
:: High body temperature;
:: Swelling of the mouth, head and neck;
:: Lameness;
:: Haemorrhages into or under the skin;
:: Inflammation at the junction of the skin and the horn of the foot – the coronary band;
:: Respiratory problems – difficulty with breathing and nasal discharge.

A blue tongue is rarely a clinical sign of infection.

Defra says deaths of sheep in a flock may reach as high as 70%. Animals that survive the disease can lose condition with a reduction in meat and wool production.

I hadn’t noticed any swollen head, but a couple days before she developed breathing difficulties, her ears were swollen. While her head now looked normal on the outside, on the inside she was having significant problems.

Today, her breathing problems were eased but today, while I was at work, she developed another problem. Her right eye has swollen so much that it protruded from the socket and the ewe, in great pain, apparently rubbed it against trees and popped it. Erg.

*sigh* Well, bluetongue virus is endemic here so, if a sheep is badly affected by it, I don’t want his/her genes in the flock. Normally. However, my flock was so reduced by dog attack on the pregnant ewes a few years ago that if this ewe survives, I need her in the flock. I haven’t ever had anything like a 70% mortality rate from bluetongue. I might go years before losing a sheep from the virus.

In between medicating the sheep, I was trying to transfer pullets to the newly completed chicken house for fear that they’d be blown away/drowned if left on pasture.

Heh. My little grandsons were here this weekend, and I still haven’t gotten all the toys picked up yet! I thought that they were going to be here tomorrow while school is out, but they won’t be. Guess I can finish picking up those toys tomorrow.

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You and Your Family Soon to be Felons

November 6, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized

Criminal penalties

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]

When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties. The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.

“The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration. Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates. Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare,” said Camp.

According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.

Uh, earth to Congress: There is no way in hell that most American families will be able to afford that. I propose that we immediately confiscate the wealth/property of all Congressional members in order to assist us to pay for our health care. After all, they’re very interested in the poor, so I propose that they become the poor. No fair keeping that cushy Congressional insurance, either. That should be nationalized as well.

/And Kennedy should have been in a hospice without a doctor, as the Kennedy Memorial Health Care/Giant Fuck You America Plan will require of the rest of us.

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If You Aren’t Pissed Off At the Health Care Bill, You Haven’t Been Paying Attention

November 6, 2009 · Filed under Economy, dumbass government stunts

From the Wall Street Journal:

• Sec. 202 (p. 91-92) of the bill requires you to enroll in a “qualified plan.” If you get your insurance at work, your employer will have a “grace period” to switch you to a “qualified plan,” meaning a plan designed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you buy your own insurance, there’s no grace period. You’ll have to enroll in a qualified plan as soon as any term in your contract changes, such as the co-pay, deductible or benefit.

• Sec. 224 (p. 118) provides that 18 months after the bill becomes law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will decide what a “qualified plan” covers and how much you’ll be legally required to pay for it. That’s like a banker telling you to sign the loan agreement now, then filling in the interest rate and repayment terms 18 months later.

On Nov. 2, the Congressional Budget Office estimated what the plans will likely cost. An individual earning $44,000 before taxes who purchases his own insurance will have to pay a $5,300 premium and an estimated $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, for a total of $7,300 a year, which is 17% of his pre-tax income. A family earning $102,100 a year before taxes will have to pay a $15,000 premium plus an estimated $5,300 out-of-pocket, for a $20,300 total, or 20% of its pre-tax income. Individuals and families earning less than these amounts will be eligible for subsidies paid directly to their insurer.

• Sec. 303 (pp. 167-168) makes it clear that, although the “qualified plan” is not yet designed, it will be of the “one size fits all” variety. The bill claims to offer choice—basic, enhanced and premium levels—but the benefits are the same. Only the co-pays and deductibles differ. You will have to enroll in the same plan, whether the government is paying for it or you and your employer are footing the bill.

• Sec. 59b (pp. 297-299) says that when you file your taxes, you must include proof that you are in a qualified plan. If not, you will be fined thousands of dollars. Illegal immigrants are exempt from this requirement.

• Sec. 412 (p. 272) says that employers must provide a “qualified plan” for their employees and pay 72.5% of the cost, and a smaller share of family coverage, or incur an 8% payroll tax. Small businesses, with payrolls from $500,000 to $750,000, are fined less.

Eviscerating Medicare:

In addition to reducing future Medicare funding by an estimated $500 billion, the bill fundamentally changes how Medicare pays doctors and hospitals, permitting the government to dictate treatment decisions.

• Sec. 1302 (pp. 672-692) moves Medicare from a fee-for-service payment system, in which patients choose which doctors to see and doctors are paid for each service they provide, toward what’s called a “medical home.”

The medical home is this decade’s version of HMO-restrictions on care. A primary-care provider manages access to costly specialists and diagnostic tests for a flat monthly fee. The bill specifies that patients may have to settle for a nurse practitioner rather than a physician as the primary-care provider. Medical homes begin with demonstration projects, but the HHS secretary is authorized to “disseminate this approach rapidly on a national basis.”

A December 2008 Congressional Budget Office report noted that “medical homes” were likely to resemble the unpopular gatekeepers of 20 years ago if cost control was a priority.

• Sec. 1114 (pp. 391-393) replaces physicians with physician assistants in overseeing care for hospice patients.

• Secs. 1158-1160 (pp. 499-520) initiates programs to reduce payments for patient care to what it costs in the lowest cost regions of the country. This will reduce payments for care (and by implication the standard of care) for hospital patients in higher cost areas such as New York and Florida.

• Sec. 1161 (pp. 520-545) cuts payments to Medicare Advantage plans (used by 20% of seniors). Advantage plans have warned this will result in reductions in optional benefits such as vision and dental care.

• Sec. 1402 (p. 756) says that the results of comparative effectiveness research conducted by the government will be delivered to doctors electronically to guide their use of “medical items and services.”

Questionable Priorities:

While the bill will slash Medicare funding, it will also direct billions of dollars to numerous inner-city social work and diversity programs with vague standards of accountability.

• Sec. 399V (p. 1422) provides for grants to community “entities” with no required qualifications except having “documented community activity and experience with community healthcare workers” to “educate, guide, and provide experiential learning opportunities” aimed at drug abuse, poor nutrition, smoking and obesity. “Each community health worker program receiving funds under the grant will provide services in the cultural context most appropriate for the individual served by the program.”

These programs will “enhance the capacity of individuals to utilize health services and health related social services under Federal, State and local programs by assisting individuals in establishing eligibility . . . and in receiving services and other benefits” including transportation and translation services.

• Sec. 222 (p. 617) provides reimbursement for culturally and linguistically appropriate services. This program will train health-care workers to inform Medicare beneficiaries of their “right” to have an interpreter at all times and with no co-pays for language services.

• Secs. 2521 and 2533 (pp. 1379 and 1437) establishes racial and ethnic preferences in awarding grants for training nurses and creating secondary-school health science programs. For example, grants for nursing schools should “give preference to programs that provide for improving the diversity of new nurse graduates to reflect changes in the demographics of the patient population.” And secondary-school grants should go to schools “graduating students from disadvantaged backgrounds including racial and ethnic minorities.”

• Sec. 305 (p. 189) Provides for automatic Medicaid enrollment of newborns who do not otherwise have insurance.

For the text of the bill with page numbers, see www.defendyourhealthcare.us.

This is a horrible, HORRIBLE bill. Do you really think that Princess Pelosi is going to be denied access to a physician when she is in hospice? You will be. How do you like the fact that “diversity” will be the guiding principle in letting people into med or nursing school, not actual ability? That your healthcare taxes will not be spent for healthcare for you and your children, but will be spent in “diversity” and “community activism” programs? That you will be forced to pay 15 to 20% of your income for “insurance” for third world care?

I’m not a bit happy about it. The government can kiss my butt; I’m not going to participate. I will quit working first and become a drain on the system and work to overthrow the system that brought us this ridiculous bill.

If government dumbasses think that business isn’t going to engage in even more massive layoffs/terminations when this dog of a bill passes, they better think again. And when you get laid off from your job and are losing your house, your car, and your family, don’t go postal on the business you used to work for. Go to the source, the Congress and the Senate. This “health care” bill should more properly be called a government imposed lack of health care bill.

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Sudden Jihad Syndrome

November 5, 2009 · Filed under Terrorism

From news interviews, the Major was upset and said that muslims should “stand up”. Muslims should not be fighting muslims. He did not want to get deployed. This was reported by his coworkers, but apparently the politically correct military chain of command didn’t want to shake the boat.

Anybody that puts religious ideology above duty to the U.S. should not be in uniform.

Unfortunately, the murdering traitor bastard is alive.

Our President, of course, is soooooo concerned about the soldiers (not!):

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Goldman Sachs Group Knowingly Marketed Trash Securities It Claimed Were AAA-Rated Investments

November 2, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized

WASHINGTON — In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.

Goldman’s sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation’s premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.

Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.

Now, pension funds, insurance companies, labor unions and foreign financial institutions that bought those dicey mortgage securities are facing large losses, and a five-month McClatchy investigation has found that Goldman’s failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws.

“The Securities and Exchange Commission should be very interested in any financial company that secretly decides a financial product is a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product or very similar products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion,” said Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor who’s proposed a massive overhaul of the nation’s banks. “This is fraud and should be prosecuted.”

John Coffee, a Columbia University law professor who served on an advisory committee to the New York Stock Exchange, said that investment banks have wide latitude to manage their assets, and so the legality of Goldman’s maneuvers depends on what its executives knew at the time.

“It would look much more damaging,” Coffee said, “if it appeared that the firm was dumping these investments because it saw them as toxic waste and virtually worthless.”

Long prison terms would appear to be called for for those that are now at the helm as well as for those former executives that are currently infesting our government. What are the odds that that will happen? They’ve destroyed more wealth than Bernie Madoff.

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Tell Me Again, What Was the Bailout For? Throwing Away Taxpayer Dollars?

November 2, 2009 · Filed under Bidness, Economy

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) – CIT Group Inc.’s decision to seek court protection probably will keep money flowing to bondholders and 1 million customers of the 101-year-old commercial lender. Shareholders and taxpayers won’t be as fortunate.

CIT’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy may give bondholders new notes at 70 cents on the dollar plus new common stock, and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Peek said clients will be able to get funds. Common stock owners could be mostly wiped out, and the U.S. Treasury Department said it won’t recoup much, if any, of the $2.33 billion of taxpayer money that went into CIT, the largest firm to go bankrupt after getting a federal bailout.

“It doesn’t look too good for the government preferred or any preferred holders,” Brian Charles, a debt analyst at New York-based brokerage RW Pressprich & Co., said yesterday. “It’s unlikely common shareholders realize any value.”

CIT failed to win a second government bailout in July or persuade bondholders to swap $30 billion in debt to prevent a bankruptcy filing this month. The New York-based lender posted more than $5 billion in losses in the last nine quarters. The filing is the fifth-largest U.S. bankruptcy by assets.

None of CIT’s operating subsidiaries, including Utah-based CIT Bank, were included in the filing, CIT said in a statement.

The lender funds about 1 million businesses such as Dunkin’ Brands Inc. in Canton, Massachusetts, and Eddie Bauer Holdings Inc., the bankrupt clothing chain based in Bellevue, Washington. CIT also provides financing to about 2,000 vendors supplying 300,000 U.S. retailers, according to a July statement from the National Retail Federation.

Getting Credit

“You’ll still be able to get your lines,” said Charles, the debt analyst. CIT has created a “relatively seamless transfer of its own operations in the bankruptcy without disrupting those of its customers,” he said.

CIT’s struggles sparked concern among retail trade groups and lawmakers that customers would be left without financing while traditional banks also were cutting back credit. CIT originated $4.4 billion of new business as of June 30, less than half the $11.3 billion in the first six months of last year.

The lender’s clients “are not doomed,” said Sean Egan, president of Egan-Jones Ratings Co. “The next step for the company is going to be an assessment of whether or not they want to continue to do business in various areas. The truth is in the middle.”

Should be an interesting market on Monday as more people come to realize that the “growth” in GDP is governmental in nature.

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The Rebuilt Chicken House is Ready for Habitation!

November 1, 2009 · Filed under Livestock, life in Florida

SwampMan and I needed to rebuild the old, uninhabited chicken house. The pastured poultry pens are too big a PITA to have to move daily when it is dark before I finish feeding! The chickens badly needed a fixed location and run for the winter. Well, maybe I need it more than the chickens do!

We started the job last weekend. The siding was in very bad shape and had to be replaced. When we stripped the siding, we found that termites had gotten into some of the old siding, framing, and door. The old wire around the run was rusty and torn. A fairly simple, two-day repair turned into two weekends’ worth.

By late Sunday afternoon, the last of the old siding was being burned, the old litter (now compost) had been shoveled out and spread on the future garden spot, and SwampMan listened to my objections to the old, fixed-in place roosts (because it was impossible to adequately clean underneath them!) and he made hinged roosts that can be raised and lowered to accomodate cleaning. Unfortunately, I was only able to relocate 7 hens before darkness fell.

So, now I have even more pens of chickens to care for than yesterday (D’OH!), a young bred ewe that will probably be dead from pneumonia by morning because I’m all out of oxytetracycline and had to use penicillin, plus I didn’t even notice her illness until she was struggling to breathe and snotting prodigiously because the sheep get fed at dusk and turned out to pasture in the predawn morning (DAMN!)

I have a nasty, hacking cough now from the compost dust of dried chicken droppings, and inhaling the smoke certainly didn’t improve it any!

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I’m Too Old For This Shit

October 30, 2009 · Filed under life in Florida

The children were certainly in high spirits today! And why not, today was a day of Halloween party festivities, cupcakes, ice cream, and candy sent in by adoring parents and indulgent teachers. Woohooo!

Oh, sure, we had a few behavioral problems…I was bitten, slapped, and kicked before breakfast, but it was a half-hearted attempt at best without any of my blood being spilled, and the student swiftly brought himself under control (this is a very good thing and a big developmental milestone for him if he continues to develop self control). No, I’m limping around the house tonight for an entirely different reason.

A child decided that he was not quite ready to leave the playground to go to lunch. Not a problem, I could wait. The child was at the top of the slide, and requested that I go up with him, so I did. Upon sliding down, the child decided to suddenly race off and leave the playground while I was at the top of the slide. I tried going down the slide, got my left foot painfully caught under my right ankle, attempted to wrench it free, and wrenched it so hard that I somehow knocked myself over the side of the slide and onto the ground about 6 feet below. Ouch. That left a mark! I immediately had to leap to my feet and chase said child instead of what I would have preferred to do, lying on the ground contemplating calling 9-1-1, but it was just as well. How in the world would I even explain the accident to the ambulance crew? I wasn’t even drinking and sliding! Faulty sliding genes, I suppose.

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