News and Current Events - 2012

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

I saw this program last night and thought I'd recommend it.
Many PBS stations carry it and one can find if it's airing in your
area here:

http://billmoyers.com/schedule/

Moyers & Co.: How Washington and Big Business Colluded to Make the Rich Richer
Friday 13 January 2012

This is a good show.  Here in Dallas we had to wait until Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m.  I recorded it.

It can be seen here on-line

http://billmoyers.com/episode/on-winner-take-all-politics/

So glad Moyers is back!

[Sandy]

And where did these killings occur?  Afghanistan.  Not Cleveland.  We were in their country.  Granted, they are ignorant and ugly. But it IS their place of birth.

Actually, many of the Taliban did not originate in Afghanistan, but came from outside (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, etc.).

[Tony_]

 Am glad to be corrected.  But, again, they sure weren't from Cleveland. And we are negotiating with the native Taliban.  Which was why the Pentagon went even more ballistic.

Also, I have been wondering more about that scandal.  If the bodies were from a firefight, wouldn't the American soldiers have been more inclined to be protecting themselves from further danger?  And also, haven't there been cases where civilians were shot under the presumption they were Taliban? Or even just sympathizers?  Anybody know?

Again, in this Iron Curtain of fending off full disclosure, can we even really know why the bodies were even there?

[AZ.bbm]

I usually get my cookies at the dollar store.

(Going all Tosh.0, over here!?!)  LOL

[AZ.bbm]

I just saw this for the first time last night and it didn't bother me in the least.  It was men like those being pissed on who would cheerfully kill anyone who opposes them, kill in the name of God.  Clinton's holier-than-the-rest-of-the-world made me want to puke, though.

And you're right, they will be scapegoats, like Calley for My Lai...

We're too bent under pc'ness and trying to be friends w/everyone to ever be as strong as we were in the past...we will be overrun by enemies as we ask them if we can hold their hat and coat...

History has shown that we (the US) make our own enemies... 

As you probably know by now, the US had long been a state sponsor and supporter of terrorism, for decades, as are several other premier nations currently posing as our "allies."

__Google 'Petraeus + Awlaki', for starters. - Read about General David Petraeus' dastardly plan to have Muslim civilians shoppng in marketplaces, and other vile things to extend the conflict in the Middle East, and why the American whistleblower, e.g., Anwar al-Awlaki, who rained on the general's parade, had to be terminated.

For starters.

-Az

[Marge_Innavera]

Paul Krugman notes that while few want to question the notion that a nation-state should be run like a corporation,


"America is not, in fact, a corporation. Making good economic policy isn’t at all like maximizing corporate profits. And businessmen — even great businessmen — do not, in general, have any special insights into what it takes to achieve economic recovery.

"Why isn’t a national economy like a corporation? For one thing, there’s no simple bottom line. For another, the economy is vastly more complex than even the largest private company.

"Most relevant for our current situation, however, is the point that even giant corporations sell the great bulk of what they produce to other people, not to their own employees — whereas even small countries sell most of what they produce to themselves, and big countries like America are overwhelmingly their own main customers.  Yes, there’s a global economy. But six out of seven American workers are employed in service industries, which are largely insulated from international competition, and even our manufacturers sell much of their production to the domestic market.

"And the fact that we mostly sell to ourselves makes an enormous difference when you think about policy.  Consider what happens when a business engages in ruthless cost-cutting. From the point of view of the firm’s owners (though not its workers), the more costs that are cut, the better. Any dollars taken off the cost side of the balance sheet are added to the bottom line.
"But the story is very different when a government slashes spending in the face of a depressed economy. Look at Greece, Spain, and Ireland, all of which have adopted harsh austerity policies. In each case, unemployment soared, because cuts in government spending mainly hit domestic producers. And, in each case, the reduction in budget deficits was much less than expected, because tax receipts fell as output and employment collapsed."

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/53296154-82/america-corporation-economy-romney.html.csp

[Marge_Innavera]

Read about General David Petraeus' dastardly plan to have Muslim civilians shoppng in marketplaces, and other vile things

General Petraeus has a dastardly plan to take Muslims shopping?  I think there was something left out.

[fofol]

i agree, i shouldn't have said it that way...i've deleted the post

yes, war is degrading, as you put it...i don't think we send our people to war on a whim...whoever said that if we just bring all troops home from every country, there would be peace, is, in my opinion, very, very wrong.  Men (mostly) will fight.

Ever think how outdated your 'Men (mostly)' is?  Wake up - I work in a Veteran's Administration hospital, and we are getting many, many more women veterans than ever.  And women must request to be assigned combat duty.

[morrobay]

Ever think how outdated your 'Men (mostly)' is?  Wake up - I work in a Veteran's Administration hospital, and we are getting many, many more women veterans than ever.  And women must request to be assigned combat duty.

yes, they serve - but they don't start the wars......that's what i meant.

[doodler]

Ever think how outdated your 'Men (mostly)' is?  Wake up - I work in a Veteran's Administration hospital, and we are getting many, many more women veterans than ever.  And women must request to be assigned combat duty.

Actually, your statement that women must request combat duty is not accurate. Women make up between 11 and 13% of the US military and by law, women are not allowed to JOIN certain combat units, such as the infantry, but are used in numerous so called support units. The problem with the Afghan and Iraqi wars has been the lack of 'fronts' and women, as often as not, have found themselves in combat right along side the troops they are supposed to be supporting. One way many commanders are utilizing their female soldiers in combat is by 'attaching' them rather than 'assigning' them to combat units.

One recent study at a single VA facility followed 1620 returning Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom vets, comprised of 240 women (6.7%) and 1380 men who enrolled for health care. Of those who enrolled, 53% of the women (127) and 45% of the men (621) actually used the services. VA hospitals do not treat 'women's' diseases/problems (like pregnancy, menopause.)

According to a May 2008 report by VHA’s Office of Public Health and Environmental Hazards, women comprise 12 percent of the OEF/OIF veterans who have sought VA health care. A study on PTSD in veterans at a Vermont facility showed that 1.1% of men versus 21.8% of women treated there had suffered military sexual trauma. PTSD following that trauma was 3.0% in men and 8.8% in women, indicating that in general, women may be more inclined to suffer PTSD than men. (In the civilian population, PTSD is seen in 3.6% of men and 9.7% of women and again much of it  ascribed to sexual trauma.) The study says "Warzone exposure may be unique. In the meta-analysis, there was no gender difference in the prevalence of PTSD due to warzone exposure among veterans."*

Currently, it is estimated 48% of women in the military have been sexually assaulted.

*"To understand these findings, it is helpful to look back to the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study, which was based on a nationally representative sample of veterans that included an oversampling of women. Lifetime PTSD prevalence was 26.9 percent in women and 30.9 percent in men, and current PTSD prevalence (in the mid-1980s) was 8.5 percent in women and 15.2 percent in men. The likely explanation for the gender difference is that the men and women who served in Vietnam differed on numerous risk and protective factors, e.g., the women were older, more educated, more likely to be officers and to serve in medical roles, and less likely to experience combat."
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Women Veterans
Paula P. Schnurr, Ph.D., VA National Center for PTSD, VA Medical Center, White River Junction, Vermont

[brokebacktom]

Currently, it is estimated 48% of women in the military have been sexually assaulted.

This amount is scary and sad.

[doodler]

The study did not differentiate between sexual assaults in combat and non combat situations.

[fofol]

yes, they serve - but they don't start the wars......that's what i meant.

Ever heard of Queen Elizabth One, the meaner of the two, or so I'm told...

[morrobay]

Ever heard of Queen Elizabth One, the meaner of the two, or so I'm told...

who told you?

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

^^^^
Do you have an opinion as to which Queen Elizabeth is the "nicer"?

On the topic, I think women in power (Hillary Clinton, hypothetically, or Margaret Thatcher) would make the tough calls if needed.

But I also agree that women might be less prone to send a generation of sons into battle, if that is what you mean to say.