Supporting our troops

April 30th, 2008

I hear both political parties saying "we support our troops", but do they? I certainly do for personal reasons. I have a son in the U.S. Navy. He is in the "Nuke" program and we are very proud of him. It is one of the most difficult courses offered anywhere. My wife and I are extremely blessed with our children, they actually listen to us, (most of the time). Nick is almost 21 and has been a blessing in our lives since the first day he got over colic. Actually he has warmed our hearts every day of his life.

I was in the army and went to Viet Nam even though I had a lot of Navy heritage. I have the advantage of hind sight and advised my son to join the Navy. I was involved with special forces and learned how to set up ambushes and perform recon, there is not a lot of call for this in the "real world". I had known several of my friends who went into the Air Force and Navy who had come out of the service with schooling that was usable in civilian life. Nick was a solid C student in high school, as was I. He was much more intelligent than his grades indicated, but he did not apply himself and I believed college would be more of the same.

He was interested in computers and he signed up to get an education in that field.
When he took the ASVAB test he got 96 out of 99 and they rerouted him to Nuke school. To be honest I wanted him in the Navy because I did not want him "boots down" in Iraq or Afghanistan or even Iran. He will serve his country on an air craft carrier. I figured no one messes with the the U.S. Navy.

I got Nick to sign up for a Roth Ira type of program with the government. He can put up to 15 thousand dollars a year into it. He put one hundred dollars a month into a program for 12 months and is now eligible for forty thousand dollars in educational benefits. In addition they have teachers on board the carriers and he can take courses while at sea.

I have said all that, so that I can say this: the government and I are supporting our troops but when politicians use them as political footballs, or do not give all of the equipment they need, that is not supporting our troops. I could spout all the cliches, such as "Freedom isn't free." etc., but cliches are not enough. I know a lot of people have made sacrifices, some have given their life or lost their loved ones, and I can tell you from personal experience, I never found anything glorious in war. That being said, we should never start a war, but we do have to defend ourselves against tyrants that would destroy our way of life. There is a world war going on right now, and a lot of people don't even know it. Whether we should be in Iraq or Afghanistan now is a moot point. We are there, and should support our troops in word and deed.

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April 28, 2008

Since nobody left a comment, I guess I will go on to day 2. THE GAS SHORTAGE.

There is no gas shortage. Recent discoveries in Canada and the United States have extended the amount of oil available to 1000 years. That's right, one thousand years before we run out of oil.

We have only had cars so far for about 100 years, and look what technology has done in that short span. I think we have enough oil to last till we can get an alternative source of energy. We already have hybrid, and fuel cells available, and of course we have ethanol, just to name a few. To give you an idea how fast technology is advancing, Orville and Wilbur Wright had their first flight in 1903, just 66 years later we landed on the moon, and technology is growing faster every day.

I am still out on global warming, the people in Greenland say it is working out just fine for them, their tourist business is really picking up. We cannot drill in ANWR so the Chinese are doing it for us and selling it back to other countries and they are also drilling off the coast of Florida just beyond our national limit. How much sense does that make? If you want to see the price go down, then drill like crazy, build more refineries and get that technology in gear.

That is my take. What's yours?

Political opening day

April 24th, 2008

I am a beginner but I believe in getting to the point, however I should give you a little background on where I am coming from. I am 63 and have 6 children. I have been married for over 26 years. I firmly believe Winston Churchill when he said (and I paraphrase) if you are young and not a liberal you have no heart, if you are older and not a conservative, then you have no brains. That said I will start with my first subject. The war.

1. I cannot say with any certainty we should have gone into Iraq, but we are there and I believe the next question should not be, should we have gone in, but where do we go from here? We have signed a deal to help the Iraqi people and must decide whether or not to honor our obligations to them or to any nation. We did not do so (in my opinion) in Viet Nam (I was there), and I wonder if we do not honor our commitments to other allies, who will trust us , or feel obligated to honor their allegiance to us.

2. If we do withdraw I believe we will lose all credence in the rest of the world.

3. Support the troops. Everyone says this, but do they believe it? I would like to give you a scenario and see what you think. If two fighters are in the ring and one is being beaten soundly and the person losing goes to his corner and says "I'm getting my butt kicked, I want to quit, I can't win!" then the corner man from the other corner comes over and says, "Just hold on for one more round, we will have another manager coming in for my fighter and He will throw in the towel." I believe that could be happening now in Iraq, the enemy is hanging on and killing more Americans as well as the Iraqis. That is why I believe Hillary and Obama are hurting the troops and maybe even causing more deaths.

All points of view are welcome but keep them clean, this blog is G rated and I would like to have young people state their point of view, and my kids will read this too.