Thoughts Pondered

Seems like I am sending another post from iPad to see if it is still working.

I am trying out posting from my iPad

May 16, 2010

Watching Fox News this morning, I caught an interview with Army Captain Joshua Mantz (in the photo at left with Secretary Gates). Captain Mantz was patrolling in Bagdhad with the First Infantry Division on April 21, 2007, when he was hit by an armor-piercing bullet that killed Staff Sergeant Marlon Harper. Part of the same bullet that killed Sergeant Harper then exited, hit Captain Mantz and severed Mantz’s femoral artery. Captain Mantz bled out and went into a flatline condition for 15 minutes.

Here let me insert a footnote. Armor-piercing bullets arrived in Iraq from China courtesy of Iran. This is one more item in the very long account that the United States has yet to settle with Iran. It would be nice if the United States began to accord Iran the treatment it so richly deserves. You might say it’s time for Plan B. End of footnote.

What happened next to Captain Mantz is something like a miracle. Thom Shanker picks up the story in a New York Times At War blog post:

"I didn’t know that I was shot," Captain Mantz said. "I was simply confused and knew that something was wrong. I experienced tunnel vision, as my attention immediately focused on the face of Staff Sergeant Marlon Harper. I looked into his eyes with crystal clarity and watched as his lifeless body fell to the ground. I experienced auditory distortion, in that I could hear nothing except for the muted shot of the sniper round, and hear my own voice call for my medic. I also experienced slow-motion time. I could feel my body absorb the shock of the round as it hit my body. I could feel myself moving backwards."

Captain Mantz dragged Sergeant Harper out of the way and began to perform first aid on him while calling for assistance. "When my medic arrived, no more than 15 seconds later, I briefly passed out," Captain Mantz said. "I regained consciousness when my men carried me into the nearest Bradley Fighting Vehicle and drove to FOB Loyalty," the forward operating base that was their home in Baghdad.

During the 10-minute ride, the medic cinched-up a tourniquet and helped Captain Mantz stay conscious. "But I had to fight for every breath that I took," Captain Mantz said.

The convoy was met by a team of Army medical personnel who within seconds were administering CPR and electronic defibrillation.

"But by this time I could feel myself starting to die, and I became desperate in my struggle to stay conscious," he said. "We’re taught in Combat Lifesaver Training that the body will pull blood to the chest cavity during a catastrophic injury in order to protect the vital organs. I could actually feel this happening. It started with my legs. I could feel the blood creeping up from my legs to my chest cavity. When all the blood was gone, my legs locked-off. As the feeling crept up my body, it became harder and harder to breathe. The blood-creeping sensation moved to my quads, and they locked off. The feeling then crept to my stomach, and it locked-off. When the feeling moved to my stomach, it felt as if I was running wind sprints around a 400-meter track while breathing through a straw.

"I started to repeat three names in my head over and over again: My mom, my sister Melissa, and my sister Kendra. For the last 60 seconds of my life, I rapidly repeated these three names in my head. They helped me hold on a little longer and [I] knew I had to fight for them. But the feeling then crept to my chest, and I knew I was done. I calmly said my last thought, took my last breath, and died."

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<snip>Specter, it turns out, is haunted by his Republican past. Many Democrats, habituated to voting against him, are skeptical of a man they hold responsible for helping put conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, John G. Roberts Jr., and Samuel A. Alito Jr. on the Supreme Court, and for supporting the economic policies of former President George W. Bush.

Wow, maybe this guy isn’t so bad after all.   NOT ! !

Arlen, I don’t think this smiley picture is going to help.

Say cheese, come on guys say cheese; that’s it , as you were.

By Thomas Fitzgerald

Sen. Arlen Specter is making his last stand before a new "jury," as he has called it, of Democratic primary voters. Until a year ago, they were the enemy.

With the hours slipping away until the polls open Tuesday, Specter finds himself in a tight race with Rep. Joe Sestak, despite the untold millions of dollars he has brought to Pennsylvania over three decades of service, the support of the White House, and backing from almost every union and Democratic organization.

Specter, it turns out, is haunted by his Republican past. Many Democrats, habituated to voting against him, are skeptical of a man they hold responsible for helping put conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, John G. Roberts Jr., and Samuel A. Alito Jr. on the Supreme Court, and for supporting the economic policies of former President George W. Bush.

"It’s hard to convince the Democrats who vote in closed primaries in midterm-election years that he is one of them," said Lara M. Brown, a political science professor at Villanova University. "These are loyal, year-in-year-out Democrats, and many feel they can’t get a fix on where he stands."

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Were not here yet ?

Eugene Volokh • April 30, 2010 4:28 pm

I remember very little about my childhood in the Soviet Union; I was only seven when I left. But one memory I have is being on a bus with one of my parents, and asking something about a conversation we had had at home, in which Stalin and possibly Lenin were mentioned as examples of dictators. My parent took me off the bus at the next stop, even though it wasn’t the place we were originally going.

Perhaps I have some of the details wrong (was it just Stalin, or also Lenin?); childhood memories remembered 35 years later are like that. I’m telling this to explain why I feel so strongly about it, based on my memories; my personal account does not affect the soundness (or unsoundness) of my arguments. But my sense from all I’ve heard is that this is exactly how life was like there, and that no-one who lived there in the 1970s would think the scenario at all improbable.

What’s more, this is so even though most people, including most Communists, knew that Stalin was of course a dictator. The government itself had acknowledged as much. Even Lenin was widely understood to have been a dictator in the sense of someone who didn’t govern through democratic means.

But it’s not the sort of thing that you’d want to say in public, or even to your friends in private. Sssh! — people might hear! Those who hear might draw deeper inferences about what else you might believe. This might get back to the place you work. You might be fired, or blacklisted. By the 1970s, you probably didn’t have to worry much about being shot, or being sent to Siberia; these were not the 1930s. But lost jobs, ruined careers — sure. And a forced public apology: well, of course, that might help a bit.

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Whether one is interested in the topic or not, when we mention butts and sexual/sensual pleasure most people imagine anal intercourse, which is a specialized skill set.

Never quite looked at it as a skill set.

My wife is from Sicily.  In the middle 70’s she wanted to get her Drivers License, at that time she spook English very well, reading not so much.  I believe at the time the tests were only in English, if I’m wrong it must have been that they didn’t have them in Italian, only a couple other languages.  There was this driving instructor, an English speaker only, held a class in our house for some Italians to study for the drivers example.  These people could read little to no English and were middle aged to above.  There were 100 questions of which randomly 25 were on the exam.  There were about 5 sessions to this exam study group.  Most of them learned the exam although some of them just memorized the answers but by and large they benefitted by studying because most of them learned the answers to the questions which is the reason for the exam.  Also they learned how to read a little better which is a plus all the way around.

BTW my wife passed the exam for the learners license but never took the driving test because of a little accident while I was teaching her to drive but that is beside the point.

There is a moral to this story.  If you don’t make it too easy most people will work harder to achieve what is important to them.  In other words, the cream will come to the top and we will all be better for it.

That is the way it used to be!

by David Obst

While watching the grilling of the CEO of Goldman Sacks I was, almost totally discussed with both sides, for a number of reasons. First of course are the demagogues sitting behind those Cherry Wood Pulpits pontificating and pointing their crooked index fingers at the obviously lower than life scoundrels that are, sheepishly, sitting down from them. They are obviously guilty because they were made to stand and raise their right hands and pledge ‘to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me blank’. Moreover, of course, we all know that they would not tell anything like the truth unless they had to or go to prison. I am surprised that they do not make them wear orange jumpsuits. The only thing that gets me angrier is that these low lives, and some of them probably are, sit there and don’t defend themselves at all. They almost throw up their arms and say please don’t hurt me, I’ll agree with whatever you say about me; just don’t hurt me.

In addition, some of these, lords of government, were the main cause of the mortgage melt down which has caused this financial crisis. The idea that everybody deserves a home of his own, no matter what. I heard the committee chairperdaught of the subcommittee tell a reporter that it was terrible that this bank in Washington State was giving out home loans to people that they knew could not afford the homes. My God, that is what the government was forcing them to do. You make loans to people in our neighborhood or you will not be able to do business there and if you do not give loans to the people we want you to were might look in your books.

I have to go on to something else because my teeth are starting to hurt, if I had any.