I've Been Busy...Cut Me a Break...

I've been deployed. Still am. And now I'm paying more attention to my other blog....

But we have a new (and awesome) Commander-in-Cheif....so I'll have all kinds of fodder.

Schweet.

OMG! Your Epidermis is Showing!

The Story: Kate Moss wears a see-through dress to an art exhibit in Istanbul. You can see her bewbies. Her 5 year old daughter is accompanying her.

My 2 Cents: Okay, I know I say this a lot, but seriously: Who Cares?

Oh, wait. I know: Fundamentalists.

I love how this (obviously conservative American) article portrays Kate as a terrible mother because you can see her breasts through the dress.

These people obviously have never been to Europe.

You know: Where people go topless on the beach, where nudity can be found on the cover of fashion magazines...AND it isn't covered up by a piece of plastic. Nudity is accepted. Really...no one cares.

People aren't ashamed of their own bodies. They teach their children not to be ashamed of their own bodies.

Wake up, geniuses. We wonder why our little girls go running into the arms of the first idiot who shows them attention in high school or junior high...? This kind of nit-picking is why. When you tell a girl that she cannot be comfortable in her own skin, you teach her that she must seek approval from someone else for fulfillment.

Good job. The stereotype about the preacher's/farmer's daughter exists for a reason. Hmmm....I wonder why the teen pregnancy rate in the US is significantly higher that that in Europe? But Europe allows nudity, drinking, and smoking at a younger age?

Just a thought..... :o)

We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming.

My apologies for a slight detour away from our usual reading enjoyment...so I return once again to our beloved Less Than Half a Nickel format.

The Story: Angelican Church Says: Gay Wedding Broke the Rules.

My 2 Cents: Who cares?

Seriously. For all of those homophobes out there: Get a life of your own and quit judging people who just want to be happy.

I'm not gay....most of us aren't, statistically. And guess what?....most of us don't care if someone is gay.

Am I the only one who sees the parable in this story? May he who has no sin cast the first stone and whatnot?

I don't really know...I'm not a Christian anymore. Maybe someone could school me on what the Bible says, in case I have it all wrong. We weren't put here to be Judge and Jury....there's supposedly already a higher power who has ear-marked that responsibility.

If God made someone gay then obviously God knows something we don't. Shoot, maybe THEY are the chosen ones...and those who shun, judge, or fear them are destined for the superheated convection oven below. Come on, Angelican Church, WWJD? Huh?

Blah, blah, blah.

I don't buy into that whole "God Hates Fags" movement that the Judeo-Christian sects seem to have embraced as a way to cover up their fears of the unknown (it doesn't matter whether they carry big billboards or say it through double-talk in a press release, they are all the same...hateful people). My humble spirit believes that God doesn't really care who you are sleeping with, so long as you are a good person who is doing the right thing in the world. Karma will bite you in the butt if you aren't.

There are really bad people in the world. Killers of thousands of innocent people. Fascists who lock away people and allow them to starve. Masked weirdoes who torture and kill Soldiers for doing their job under the guise of a "holy war." People who take advantage of others in order to gain financially. Liars, theives, murderers.

So, to the Angelican Church and it's followers: Get a life. These men aren't hurting anyone. They are GAY....another word for happy. Get over your judgement and be happy for them. There is real pain, real violence, real hunger in this world...and you focus on this?

Wake up. Shoot...I'll even buy you a cup of coffee, just so you can smell it.

I'm Not Being Paid to Think....Hey, Wanna See My M-4?

The Story: I'm in Germany. And I don't get to drink, sight-see, or have any kind of fun. Thank you, General Order Number One.

My Two Cents: The Army gives Soldiers weapons, but treats us like 12-year-olds.

Hi, everyone. If you actually read my blog, you know it's been a really-frickin'-long-time since I've posted. So long, in fact, that I'm actually surprised that they haven't shut down my account.

The reason for this travesty can be fully blamed on my volunteerism. I raised my (stupid) hand and joined the Army.

Don't get me wrong....I love the U.S. Army, and all it stands for...

But there are some times when I think that someone should have slapped me upside the head before I swore that oath.

This is one of those times.

We are deployed. Mobilized. Whatever. However you say it, we are away from home for over a year to do whatever the Army tells us to do.

At least we get paid.

Mobilization amounts to this: Lots of training, lots of waiting, paperwork, poking and proding, not enough sleep, no drinking, no sex, no tattoos, no gambling, and absolutely no fun.

Sounds like something you want to go and sign up for right away, right?

It gets worse.

Not only can you not drink alcohol, have sex, gamble, get a tattoo, or have any fun...you have to watch Joes (Soldiers) from other countries do ALL of the things that you are not allowed to do.

I thought I'd left all of those restrictions behind when I became an adult. I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Apparently a 28 year old woman with 2 children at home can be trusted with a semi-automatic weapon, but cannot be trusted to know when it is appropriate to get laid or have a icy cold beer.

I am a paid killer....but I'm not being paid to think. I have Officers to do that for me.

God help us.

Hey...wanna see my gun? Heh.

The Big Guns

The Story: I've been issued a present. It's because the Military knows I deserve it. Or, I pissed someone off. You decide. Either way....it's a lovely gift. If you want to call it that. Here's what it looks like: Big Gun.

My 2 Cents: I don't like this thing much...but it does kill at a high rate of speed. And, unlike the majority of folks in my unit who have to carry multiple weapons, I only have to carry this one.

I'm glad, because this thing is a beast.

Let's put it this way. I weigh 130lbs. It weighs 28. And this is WITHOUT ammo, and the extra barrel. Combat load for this weapon is 800 rounds. That's a lot...if you couldn't already figure it out on your own.

It all adds up to a buttload of extra weight to worry about in addition to the stuff I'm carrying already.

It's gonna make me strong (to quote Major Payne).

Needless to say, it all makes me feel a little top-heavy. I'm 5'9" tall...130lbs....carrying over half my body-weight of gear and weaponry on and around my upper body.

If I fall down, I'll need help getting up.

I should buy one of those pager deals that seniors use if they fall and break a hip.

"Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!"

Of course, mine would be "Help, I've fallen and my weapon is squishing the life out of me!!!"

"Continue the Fight!"......(That's our Company Motto)

.....Ummm....yeah. As soon as I can get myself off the ground....I'll be right there.

At least It'll be easy for me to take cover.

Pause

The Story: I'll be out of the loop for a few weeks.

My 2 Cents: I'm currently in the fourth or fifth layer of hell. Or I would be, if I believed in hell.

That's right. Training. ARMY training.

Now, make no mistake about it: I love the Army. I love training. But when you get them together (and you Army folks know this)....well, things get interesting.

Let's put it this way: Take the crappiest experiences in your life and cram them all together into a 2 week period. Now, take 3 or 4 of the very best experiences in your life...and scatter them into that two weeks of crap.

And that is about how I feel right now. It's really very emotionally confusing.

I need a nap.

What's Really Causing This "Global Warming" Thingy?

The Story: Scientists have predicted when the world will end, and how. According to this article, as the Sun expands (as all stars do when they age), our world will get warmer and warmer...and eventually (a billion or so years from now) all of our oceans will be boiled away by the heat of the expanding Sun.

A few billion years later, the Earth will be pulled into the Sun (as it changes into a "red giant") by its gravitational force and destroyed completely. ***Cue music: "It's the end of the world...as we know it....and I feel fiiiiiine...."***

My 2 Cents: The Earth will be SUCKED into the Sun. Nom, nom, nom. Hungry Sun.

What a ride that would be.

Of course, that's approximately 7.6 billion years from now. There's definitely plenty of time for lazy bloggers like me to speculate about this.

Am I the only one who sees the possible correlation between this theory and "Global Warming?"

Don't get me wrong....pollution is bad. Burning petroleum-based fuels is not a good thing. I'm certainly not saying it is.

*Ahem!* Prepare for the Naughty Oil Company Diatribe.

Our oil-dependent world is run by oil-baron corrupted governments...and that certainly isn't helping matters. We, as the current caretakers of this planet, need to research and USE alternative energy sources which will not poison our environment. And we should not be financially punished in order to do so. Alternative fuel use should be rewarded...and carbon fuel use should be shunned. When our government makes allegiances with oil-rich terrorist governments, simply because they have oil...those governments should be shunned and punished as well.

We should not be turning a blind eye to terrorism so we can have access to cheap oil. For the US to do so is hypocritical....and sick.

Facts are facts...oil is no longer a sensible energy source...period. Oil companies are gouging consumers because the government allows it....and the government allows it because they are getting something out of it. Oil companies say that the prices climb due to oil shortages...refining costs...transportation costs...taxes...etc, etc, etc,....but every fiscal quarter those same oil companies report record profit margins.

I'm confused. If the price of oil is increasing concurrently with the cost of refining and transporting the product...profit margins should stay the same.

It doesn't take an economist or an accountant to figure out that we're being screwed over here. And our pocketbooks are not the only things paying the price. All of the crap being belched into our atmosphere is simply speeding up the process of kicking the human race off the planet.

*Climbs off of one soap-box to move to another*

However, carbon in the atmosphere is not the only cause of our Planet's temperature increases. We can't blame the oil companies and those who purchase oil products for everything (I'll take some blame...I don't own a hybrid or other alternative fuel vehicle...but my car does get over 35 miles per gallon...so I'm doing what I can afford at this point).

The Earth has been going into, in, and coming out of Ice Ages for the lifetime of our planet. The short amount of time humans have inhabited this planet is not going to change that...no matter how important we think we are....we're still just a relatively miniscule part of the equation.

Seriously....I'm pretty hot...but I'm not the sun! :o)