Vodka For Veterans

So, there's probably going to be a few people out there who dissapprove of this idea, from Mr. Joe Nedlin in Colorado. He's begun marketing a brand of vodka, the profits of which will go to support veterans. There are, of course, going to be people offended by the fact that this man is selling alcohol in the name of our national heros- but, in my humble, camoflauge-laden opinion, it's not too likely to be military folks that are upset by this. Sure, it's some of our own that are going to be helped by this, and that's one great reason not to protest- our veterans and war fighters can use all the support they can get! However, any veteran, soldier, marine, sailor, airman or guardsman- past, or present- is likely to be aware that, among us uniformed service men and women, alcohol is as American as apple pie. There are folks in the service who don't drink- plenty that never have- but, as a rule, the weekends are reserved for late nights, and rotating designated driver shifts.

Yo, Maine-iacs! STOP MAKING HEADLINES, WOULD YA?!

So, first off, Mr. Gil Steward of Auburn, Maine goes a lil crazy about the whole good-samaritan thing- when you find large quantities of money twice in a three-day period- IN THE SAME PLACE, brother, you best believe it's a sign. And living in Auburn?! Anyone who's been to Auburn knows what I'm saying here- money doesn't come cheap in that town! Okay, a wallet, sure, but a frikkin BAG OF MONEY?! Seriously, folks, you can't make that shit up!!!

Then we have Mr. Matthew Tyler of Limington, Maine going so far above and beyond 'Hey, ya'll watch this' I can't even figure out where to start. Anyone who's lived in the north for more than a day can tell you if you're driving, and it's cold out, ya can't really see what's beneath all that snow, and you come to a biiiiig clearing- don't drive through it, cuz it's a damned lake! From the looks of the three inches of truck above water, that chevy wasn't starting any time soon. One of the locals took the time to comment on the article online "Hey folks our first idiot of the season!" Yep... When do we start placing bets on who the next ten or twenty to pull this off will be?

On the topic of shit you can't make up, there is a truck of eggs missing up in Turner, Maine. State police apparently asked fellow troopers throughout New England to be on the lookout for the missing 260,000 eggs. To boot, this is apparently not the first- nor even the largest egg heist in the state of Maine to date.

Just When You Thought People Couldn't Get More Sick...

Just when your wildest nightmares had been completely outdone by stories of real-life pirates and drug dealers underwear being sold by federal authorities, comes a story that is so far beyond sick no explanation, no imaginable motive even comes close to covering it. A group of three HIV-Positive Dutch men were charged with aggravated assault, rape and illegal possession of drugs after allegedly advertising gay orgies and drugging men, to either rape them or- get this- inject them with a syringe of their own HIV-infected blood- or both. One of these men is a nurse, and the ages of the accused are 39, 49 and 50 years old. What kind of disgusting hatred must one have to not only go so far as to rape another human being- but to premeditate it to this sickening degree and to inject them with your own infected blood? This brings a whole different meaning to the term sick. There are 14 alleged victims of this trio.

Lollipop, Lollipop.....

This one, from Reuter's Oddly Enough, was just far too amusing not to repost. Alright, the point of the article is bizzarre enough in and of itself. The resale of a drug dealer's possesions is just one of those things you really don't hear much about these days. However, the image and, better yet, the comments were the real kicker. Go ahead and check it out- there's just no explaining this one, kids.

Body Image Statistics

So, over here, at http://www.colorado.edu/, they explain some interesting statistics on body issues and images among a group surveyed. For example, in 1998, the average age for a girl to start dieting was eight- 8- years old. Don't most girls still think boys have cooties at eight years old? Who the hell is telling them they're fat when they should be climbing trees and throwing rocks at boys? Seriously! Though it doesn't specify what age group this refers to, young girls are more afraid, as a whole of those surveyed, of getting fat than of losing their parents, cancer or nuclear war. How and what- if anything- are we teaching these girls in way of priority if they are this frightened of gaining weight? Despite the fact that two thirds of dieters regain the lost weight within a single year, somehow, between diet foods, programs, drugs and other diet products, the diet industry rakes in more than 40 billion dollars every year- and the estimate continues climbing. In a single year, we are feeding an industry which provides virtually no lasting results more than twice what our government spent weeks approving to bail out the entire automotive industry.
Tell me this is not proof of painfully skewed values amongst the average person, and watch me laugh in your face.

Leadership

Most literature I've read about leadership generally agree on certain issues: leaders need to be able to manage their time, they need to be able to distribute responsibility, and they need to know the people they are leading.
How far, though, does a leader have to go to really satisfy that last quality? Do they need to know what each member of their team excels at? Do they need to know the work abilities of these people? Does it go farther than that?
I think it goes much farther than that. Being among the lowest on the totem poll in the ranks of the Army, leadership is not an issue that can be avoided- at all. Nothing gets done without the approval of our leaders. We do the work, they tell us what to do. It really is that simple, mostly. However, it pains me to see that many leaders do not see- or purposely look away when they do see- their team members behaving out of the norm, when they fail to live up to the standards they generally hold true to, when these greener folks are suddenly getting in trouble, lashing out, and taking an attitude when they never would have before. How are leaders so willing to console themselves with their own assumed ignorance while those they are responsible for suffer? How do they blatantly ignore these people who ask them for help? How do they expect reprimands to correct action that never stemmed from lack of knowledge between acceptable versus unacceptable behavior? It goes deeper, but when everyone ignores that, it will never get better.

Sisterhood

How many times have you told your daughter she can be anything she wants to be when she grows up?
How many times have you told her all it takes is wanting it enough?
How many times have you told her that she is as good as any boy?

Now, how many times have you told her that she never needs to remain silent when she is hurt?

There are so many women, girls, young ladies out there that have experienced so much hurt, so much pain in their lives, and yet we are always so afraid to turn to one another with it. I wonder if women have always been so distant from one another. I wonder if women were ever really able to trust one another on more than an occasional one-on-one basis. I am as guilty as the next woman of making the general statement that I simply do not get along with women. So many of us have said that, so many of us live that, so many of us wish it were different- but who are we expecting to change it? No one else is capable of taking that step forward, of opening up, of risking just a little to possible gain so much. So many of us have been through the same things, but we keep it locked up, because men don't understand it and we don't have any women around to share it with. When did we stop being sisters and start being competition? If we can't accept each other as we are, how the hell do we expect men to?
What has happened to us?