LJ is back. Welcome back LJ. We all missed you.
So that was interesting. Complete power failure is always fun.
Anyways, not too much interesting stuff has happened in the hiatus from LJ. I've been tracking my order from amazon like a mofo, simply because it's never updated on the USPS site. Apparently the CDs are chilling somewhere in Kentucky, getting to know each other better, going to hit some rad lampshade parties, and getting stoned with the boxes of cheap electronics behind the left quadrant's black boxes. I buy such well-mannered things. ;) UPS definitely is a lot better about moving shit. I got my guitar very quickly from Musician's Friend. Same thing with my amp and my stompbox. I was very impressed...and it was delivered via UPS. Oh well. It looks like I am going to be spending the next few days in Chicago anyways, so it doesn't matter if they are here or not.
That's right. I think that the Chicago trip is official. I'm still watching my health, though, because I came down with a sore throat again on Friday, and it has lasted through today. I'm kinda worried about it because at least the other one came and went. This one has been steady. We'll see how it goes tomorrow morning. I really want to see people, but I also don't want to get them sick. That would be teh suxor. Big time. The thing that I am most paranoid about is getting sick while in Chicago. That would suck big time, seeing as this flu gave my dad severe dizzy spells, so much that he wouldn't be able to drive if he needed to, and it basically knocks you out. It's not cool in the slightest. I really don't want to be 7 hours away and get that sick. Not cool whatsoever. And then want to drive home. Yeah. Not fun. It would be an interesting trip. Vver is going to come with me, so if that does happen, not only will she maybe get sick(heh...::singsong:: I'm a biological weapon...), but I'd make her drive my car to GB...hopefully in the daytime...oh yeah...she can't. Damn. Well, I'd have to drive at least three hours anyways. What's another 4?
In other news....there really is no other news. Um...the NFL playoffs look great this year. At least, the AFC does. The NFC, when playing NFC teams, puts up a good game, but I'm really starting to wonder if the NFC is going to retain it's hold on the Super Bowl win record here. I think the Falcons have a chance to pull it off. They look the best. That, of course, is not saying much, because the NFC sucks ass this time around.
In much more disturbing news a Marine who recently returned from Iraq shot and killed one police officer in California, severely injured another, and was shot down himself. I was watching the O'Reilly Factor when I heard about this, at about 4 AM yesterday morning. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was wondering what possible reasons this person would have to do this, why he would do this. Let's look at the factors here. This young man was 19 at the time, and joined the Marine Corps after his high school graduation out of a bigger school in Ceres, California, from what I understand. Now, I did a search on mapquest, and Ceres is just a little southeast of Modesto. Modesto is approximately a little west of the center area of California where it angles to the right on the map between San Francisco and San Jose. Ok, now, this young man enlists in the Marines, is trained in San Diego, and is shipped off to Iraq, where he sees the horrors of war. Apparently a bit before he came home, he was in one of the convoys that hit a roadside bomb, and when one of his comrades on his truck died as a result of that bomb, he said that he wished it was him, according to the O'Reilly Factor, wherever they get their info from. This is understandable. The sense of comradery when fighting for your life is naturally unbelievable. However, he still should have been closely watched, and I assume he was while working with the Marines. So, he gets out of Iraq, traumatized like anyone would be, just having come out of a war. Taking these facts into contemplation, one possible reasoning comes into mind...homicide/suicide by cop. He didn't die in combat, he couldn't kill himself, so he'd die "in combat" with the police. Okay. That makes sense. However, what we don't take into consideration here is what he is going home to, exactly. We don't know if he joined the Marines to get out of a gang situation, or to get out of who knows what. It's entirely possible that is the reason he enlisted. I personally would think that it is much better to die on a real battlefield than to be just another number and unknown face in the battle on the streets. You can argue that it is one in the same, but I personally don't believe that this is true. In any case, this person comes home, and he has to deal with the trauma that he is going through from battle. As so many people have done in the past, he resorts to self-medication(see the report, he was hopped up on cocaine), and that's when the shit hits the fan. He might have had thoughts of doing something rash before hand, but while under the influence of cocaine, he might have had the lack of inhibition to actually do something. So, he gets high, goes to rob a liquor store, knowing the police will be called there soon. When the police arrive, he pulls out a high powered rifle(again, cited from O'Reilly. It was shown in the surveillance video quite clearly) and starts attacking the police. He kills one, severely injures another(maybe there was no real motive for this. The gun would have been enough by itself to get him shot, but if he didn't fire it, there was no guarantee that the police would return fire. If he fires, and kills at least one, he is guaranteed to be shot at.), and then is killed himself. His objective is completed, and he takes some with him, a true tragedy in my eyes. Why do I come to this decision? There is no way in hell a Marine would do this in the first place, unless under a LOT of stress. Sure, it happens, but there are many young men who come home after a war and settle back into civilian life easily. What this leads me to believe is either he had some kind of mental problem that inhibited him from handling stress too well, or he just broke down completely, and didn't seek help. A Marine is trained to kill on the battlefield, not on home turf. This young man must have been seeking a way out.
So, a Marine kills an officer, puts another in the hospital, and gets himself killed. What next? Well, blame must be placed. Obviously, the young man himself is to blame primarily. This cannot be questioned or overlooked. But what is the reason behind these actions in the first place? O'Reilly had two people on his show to comment on this, one a radio talk show host, and another a TV anchor or somethign like this. The radio talk show host(who I definitely think is anti-Bush and anti-war) immediately started citing the reason for the snap being the war itself, and citing this reason alone as being enough to stay out of Iraq, and oh-no-the-world-is-coming-down-because-we're-in-Iraq. I personally am not fond of the fact that we're in Iraq at all. I don't see the ties that supposedly were there. At least, I don't see them strong enough to warrant an invasion of Iraq. However, to say that because one returning soldier snapped is reason enough to condemn the war, the Bush administration, and everything else related is bullshit. There were many alternative routes that this person could have taken to avoid this situation. He could have not gone home. He could have stayed at Camp Pendleton. He could have talked with someone, and gotten some of the best psychiatric advice and help that our nation has to offer. He could have done a lot. The fact is, he didn't. To be fair, it might have partially been an oversight on the Marines' part, to not have had him referred to psych after he made that comment, at least when he got back to home base. What one is doing when citing this as a reason against the Iraq war is a reason against all war. Psychological trauma is a result of all battle situations. It's a fact of life. We have to deal with these situations as they arise, and we are obligated to, because these are the brave men and women who are protecting our rights to live free. What we have to remember in this case is that there were other doors out of this situation that could have been taken. His family could partially be to blame. They knew he was a changed man when he came back. They could have gotten him help. It's entirely possible that he hid his emotions while in the care of the Marines. While it is a tragedy that this happened, and it is related to our presence in Iraq, which was a result of the Bush administration, this is not just related to the Bush administration. There were many entities at fault here. What we should do now is take away the realization that we need to take better care of our soldiers, marines, sailors, guardsmen, and whatever else not only physically but mentally, especially upon returning stateside from a battle situation. Some kind of debriefing that includes psyciatric consultation should be included in standard procedures. While it probably won't eliminate these kinds of tragedies, they will make the chances of something like this happening again quite slim.
And with that, I'm off.
Anyways, not too much interesting stuff has happened in the hiatus from LJ. I've been tracking my order from amazon like a mofo, simply because it's never updated on the USPS site. Apparently the CDs are chilling somewhere in Kentucky, getting to know each other better, going to hit some rad lampshade parties, and getting stoned with the boxes of cheap electronics behind the left quadrant's black boxes. I buy such well-mannered things. ;) UPS definitely is a lot better about moving shit. I got my guitar very quickly from Musician's Friend. Same thing with my amp and my stompbox. I was very impressed...and it was delivered via UPS. Oh well. It looks like I am going to be spending the next few days in Chicago anyways, so it doesn't matter if they are here or not.
That's right. I think that the Chicago trip is official. I'm still watching my health, though, because I came down with a sore throat again on Friday, and it has lasted through today. I'm kinda worried about it because at least the other one came and went. This one has been steady. We'll see how it goes tomorrow morning. I really want to see people, but I also don't want to get them sick. That would be teh suxor. Big time. The thing that I am most paranoid about is getting sick while in Chicago. That would suck big time, seeing as this flu gave my dad severe dizzy spells, so much that he wouldn't be able to drive if he needed to, and it basically knocks you out. It's not cool in the slightest. I really don't want to be 7 hours away and get that sick. Not cool whatsoever. And then want to drive home. Yeah. Not fun. It would be an interesting trip. Vver is going to come with me, so if that does happen, not only will she maybe get sick(heh...::singsong:: I'm a biological weapon...), but I'd make her drive my car to GB...hopefully in the daytime...oh yeah...she can't. Damn. Well, I'd have to drive at least three hours anyways. What's another 4?
In other news....there really is no other news. Um...the NFL playoffs look great this year. At least, the AFC does. The NFC, when playing NFC teams, puts up a good game, but I'm really starting to wonder if the NFC is going to retain it's hold on the Super Bowl win record here. I think the Falcons have a chance to pull it off. They look the best. That, of course, is not saying much, because the NFC sucks ass this time around.
In much more disturbing news a Marine who recently returned from Iraq shot and killed one police officer in California, severely injured another, and was shot down himself. I was watching the O'Reilly Factor when I heard about this, at about 4 AM yesterday morning. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was wondering what possible reasons this person would have to do this, why he would do this. Let's look at the factors here. This young man was 19 at the time, and joined the Marine Corps after his high school graduation out of a bigger school in Ceres, California, from what I understand. Now, I did a search on mapquest, and Ceres is just a little southeast of Modesto. Modesto is approximately a little west of the center area of California where it angles to the right on the map between San Francisco and San Jose. Ok, now, this young man enlists in the Marines, is trained in San Diego, and is shipped off to Iraq, where he sees the horrors of war. Apparently a bit before he came home, he was in one of the convoys that hit a roadside bomb, and when one of his comrades on his truck died as a result of that bomb, he said that he wished it was him, according to the O'Reilly Factor, wherever they get their info from. This is understandable. The sense of comradery when fighting for your life is naturally unbelievable. However, he still should have been closely watched, and I assume he was while working with the Marines. So, he gets out of Iraq, traumatized like anyone would be, just having come out of a war. Taking these facts into contemplation, one possible reasoning comes into mind...homicide/suicide by cop. He didn't die in combat, he couldn't kill himself, so he'd die "in combat" with the police. Okay. That makes sense. However, what we don't take into consideration here is what he is going home to, exactly. We don't know if he joined the Marines to get out of a gang situation, or to get out of who knows what. It's entirely possible that is the reason he enlisted. I personally would think that it is much better to die on a real battlefield than to be just another number and unknown face in the battle on the streets. You can argue that it is one in the same, but I personally don't believe that this is true. In any case, this person comes home, and he has to deal with the trauma that he is going through from battle. As so many people have done in the past, he resorts to self-medication(see the report, he was hopped up on cocaine), and that's when the shit hits the fan. He might have had thoughts of doing something rash before hand, but while under the influence of cocaine, he might have had the lack of inhibition to actually do something. So, he gets high, goes to rob a liquor store, knowing the police will be called there soon. When the police arrive, he pulls out a high powered rifle(again, cited from O'Reilly. It was shown in the surveillance video quite clearly) and starts attacking the police. He kills one, severely injures another(maybe there was no real motive for this. The gun would have been enough by itself to get him shot, but if he didn't fire it, there was no guarantee that the police would return fire. If he fires, and kills at least one, he is guaranteed to be shot at.), and then is killed himself. His objective is completed, and he takes some with him, a true tragedy in my eyes. Why do I come to this decision? There is no way in hell a Marine would do this in the first place, unless under a LOT of stress. Sure, it happens, but there are many young men who come home after a war and settle back into civilian life easily. What this leads me to believe is either he had some kind of mental problem that inhibited him from handling stress too well, or he just broke down completely, and didn't seek help. A Marine is trained to kill on the battlefield, not on home turf. This young man must have been seeking a way out.
So, a Marine kills an officer, puts another in the hospital, and gets himself killed. What next? Well, blame must be placed. Obviously, the young man himself is to blame primarily. This cannot be questioned or overlooked. But what is the reason behind these actions in the first place? O'Reilly had two people on his show to comment on this, one a radio talk show host, and another a TV anchor or somethign like this. The radio talk show host(who I definitely think is anti-Bush and anti-war) immediately started citing the reason for the snap being the war itself, and citing this reason alone as being enough to stay out of Iraq, and oh-no-the-world-is-coming-down-because-we're-in-Iraq. I personally am not fond of the fact that we're in Iraq at all. I don't see the ties that supposedly were there. At least, I don't see them strong enough to warrant an invasion of Iraq. However, to say that because one returning soldier snapped is reason enough to condemn the war, the Bush administration, and everything else related is bullshit. There were many alternative routes that this person could have taken to avoid this situation. He could have not gone home. He could have stayed at Camp Pendleton. He could have talked with someone, and gotten some of the best psychiatric advice and help that our nation has to offer. He could have done a lot. The fact is, he didn't. To be fair, it might have partially been an oversight on the Marines' part, to not have had him referred to psych after he made that comment, at least when he got back to home base. What one is doing when citing this as a reason against the Iraq war is a reason against all war. Psychological trauma is a result of all battle situations. It's a fact of life. We have to deal with these situations as they arise, and we are obligated to, because these are the brave men and women who are protecting our rights to live free. What we have to remember in this case is that there were other doors out of this situation that could have been taken. His family could partially be to blame. They knew he was a changed man when he came back. They could have gotten him help. It's entirely possible that he hid his emotions while in the care of the Marines. While it is a tragedy that this happened, and it is related to our presence in Iraq, which was a result of the Bush administration, this is not just related to the Bush administration. There were many entities at fault here. What we should do now is take away the realization that we need to take better care of our soldiers, marines, sailors, guardsmen, and whatever else not only physically but mentally, especially upon returning stateside from a battle situation. Some kind of debriefing that includes psyciatric consultation should be included in standard procedures. While it probably won't eliminate these kinds of tragedies, they will make the chances of something like this happening again quite slim.
And with that, I'm off.