You too, New Jersey!!

As I’m sure all you residents of Virginia and New Jersey are aware, we have rather significant local elections coming up this November. Whoever you’re going to vote for, it’s important that you learn as much as you can ahead of time, not only about the candidates themselves, but about how to ensure that your vote is properly counted.
It’s for that reason that I’m writing this, to remind our beloved military personnel that the deadline for absentee voting is coming up soon! In fact, it’s so soon, it’s just about a week away!!

The deadline for mailing absentee ballots from overseas is October 5th!
Don’t let your overseas deployment cause your vote to go uncounted!!

To learn more about this deadline and what all you need to do to ensure that your absentee vote gets counted, visit the following websites:

If you’re a resident of Virginia, click here!

If you’re a resident of New Jersey, click here!

As always, I want to offer my sincerest gratitude to everyone serving in every single branch of our nation’s military! As a military brat myself, I’ve seen just what that service entails, up close and personal, for as long as I can remember. It’s certainly not an easy job, but one I thank you for. Keep up the great work and please know that my family’s thoughts & prayers are out there with you, no matter where you’re serving!
Oh yeah, and don’t forget to vote!!

Word surfaced over this past weekend about a book that’s recently been added to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ list of publications to be distributed to veterans, despite the fact it was deliberately removed several years ago due to material that the leaders of the VA deemed objectionable. Now that we have a new administration in town, apparently even though they haven’t seen fit to fill more than half of the vacant presidential appointments, someone thought it urgent that this book be reinstated. Someone has great priorities.
If you haven’t yet seen the book, you need to read it. Then you might understand why I’m a bit miffed about this.

The book is called ‘Your Life, Your Choices’ – a title which seems strangely apt given the recent debate over government-run health care. While normally such a title should be appealing to me, the content is absolutely disgusting, in my opinion. The reason for my disgust?
It’s an end of life planning counseling book written by Dr. Robert Pearlman, a major proponent of assisted suicide. In fact, Dr. Pearlman has testified repeatedly in multiple court cases wherein he advocated for physician-assisted suicide.
Brilliant. Just who I’d want to get compassionate, sensitive, and humane guidance from about how to make the most out of my life and maintain my dignity, no matter what physical condition I might find myself in.

I have to admit, I was not able to read the entire book. It was just too emotional for me, and I’ll explain why in a minute. But first, I want to give you a sampling of what the book has to offer: a checklist of ways to tell if your life has devolved to the point where you might want to consider that maybe it’s just not worth living anymore. At least, according to Dr. Pearlman.

Click to enlarge

You know what I noticed first? The options. Nowhere is there an option where you can provide an answer that life is more than just “difficult, but acceptable”, but actually valid, enjoyable, dignified, engaging, and valued. That tells you a helluva lot, doesn’t it? What do you think that says to the veteran who’s reading it?

Let me tell you the second thing I noticed. Out of the 18 direct questions, I qualify for at least 11 of them, maybe 12. According to this book, I’d be a more than valid candidate for assisted-suicide. According to them, my life – at best – is “difficult, but acceptable”.

I’m only 24 years old.

Does that mean my life isn’t worth living? Does that mean my life isn’t dignified? Does that mean my life is “difficult, but acceptable”, or “worth living, but just barely”? Does that mean as a human being, I’m not to be valued as much as someone with an able body? Does that mean that I should just roll over and die because life didn’t turn out the way I thought it would?

I’m sorry, but I refuse to see if that way. I find it disgusting and so incredibly offensive that this book doesn’t even begin to recognize the value of every life, able, disabled, or otherwise. I’ve been seriously ill for over half of my life, and yet I’ve been able to contribute in ways most able-bodied people never do. Yet according to the words of this booklet, handed out to veterans by the VA, I rate just barely beyond “acceptable”.

I find this so far beyond deplorable that I don’t have words adequate enough to express my outrage. Some are calling this a “death book.” I certainly wouldn’t go that far or be that trite about it. But I would call it an absolutely appalling example of outright prejudice against the disabled. To devalue any human being should be outrageous to all of us. Because the minute we can devalue someone is the minute we can devalue anyone.

Veterans don’t need to be told that their lives are only barely acceptable if they’ve been injured or suddenly find themselves severely ill. They need to be encouraged, uplifted, loved, and reminded that they can overcome the challenges and obstacles they face, ultimately becoming stronger in ways they may not have previously imagined. I know I have. Sure, life isn’t always easy, but is it ever easy for anyone? Sure, I’ve had to deal with a lot of pain. But I’ve learned and grown as a person because of it. Those veterans can too.
But they won’t, if they’re told by our government that they can’t, that their lives are now worthless, and that they might as well just give up. We can’t devalue them this way, we can’t disrespect their humanity, we can’t just dismiss them. Just like we shouldn’t dismiss anyone with a disability, whether seen or unseen. We’re all human, we’re all born with different abilities, and throughout our lives, those abilities will surely change and transform. But we are all still human and we are all still deserving of the same rights, respect, and validation. How dare the VA even begin to say otherwise.

One final thought; this is how our government is treating our veterans’, how they’re influencing their health care decisions. If that’s how the heroes among us are treated, how would they treat the rest of us if they were in charge of our health care decisions? How much do you want to bet we’d all be reading a book like this one?
Are you willing to bet your life? It is, after all, your life, and your choice. At least, it is for now. I, for one, would like to keep it that way.

If you’d like to download and read the entire booklet, you can read it here on the official Department of Veterans Affairs website. Yup, even though the VA is saying it’s not an official VA document, it’s still available on their website, and the website says otherwise. It says it was created specifically for the VA via a generous grant of your tax dollars. Although it is allegedly under revision, it’s still being handed out in print in its current form to veterans.
And just in case it suddenly disappears, I’ve archived a copy here.

You have to see this clip of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg being interviewed by a total leftist Hamas shill “reporter”! I’m no fan of Bloomberg, but I think he does a remarkable job of answering this woman’s laughably idiotic and obviously slanted questions.

Listening to people like that woman from CNN, it’s easy to see just how Holocausts get started. It’s slow, it’s meandering, but when you start hearing such drastic attempts to bend over backwards to paint a nation as evil, simply for defending itself and its people from outright terrorism, you’ve got to know you’re on the eve of something truly terrible and truly wrong. When is this nation going to wake up to the antisemitism that’s running rampant throughout the Left?
I’ll have more on that later, but for now, just think about it. And remember, the last Holocaust didn’t happen overnight. It’s so easy to forget that, looking back with full 20/20 hindsight. With all the grand moments from that period of time, it’s easy to overlook the slow, simmering boil that led to the first shots being fired. But never forget, before the people of a nation could exterminate an entire race, they had to grow accustomed to the idea. People don’t become monsters overnight. First school children were taught to count tanks instead of apples in their textbooks. Humor turned from harmless to rampantly antisemitic. Whispers in back alleys turned into questions posed by national figures on the biggest stages. The biggest waterfalls begin with a single drop of water, so do atrocities begin with the smallest of wrongs.

I remind myself of this with an issue of Life magazine that I happened to find in a junk shop. It was from 1939. The US hadn’t joined the war yet, we were still on the outside looking in. At the time, we didn’t know the truth of the concentration camps, the horrors of the war in Europe. In this magazine, there’s an entire article talking about how remarkably progressive and respectable Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party are. It’s an interview with Hitler and his minions, discussing such progressive ideas as feminism, healthcare, science, religion, and eugenics (if you’re not familiar with that, please, look it up). It’s wholly congratulatory, it even goes so far as to encourage the American people to respect this “great man.” It is a brilliant piece of propaganda, sprinkled with the tiniest hints of antisemitism. It speaks of racial purity, but only in the kindest of ways. On the eve of the bloodiest of all wars, even Life magazine was singing Hitler’s praises, calling him a progressive leader worthy of emulating. It was just the very beginning of an overall attempt to familiarize the American public with a monster. You don’t welcome a monster into your home when it’s full grown and menacing. But when it’s small, minute, and disguised by obscured naivety, you open your door and welcome it inside, all the while never noticing what it is you’re nurturing at your hearth. Until it’s too late, and you’re a nation that’s bred an entire generation ready, willing, and proud, to murder in the name of what’s right, what’s good, and what’s honorable.

There has been enough of our own history to teach us how to recognize these infantile monsters, if only we’d open our eyes to see them.

It can often become overwhelming, listening to all the incessant screams of the pacifist Left, as they rail against every little thing, constantly casting President Bush as a Hitler-type, calling him the worst president ever, and always chiming in at every possible second trying to convince us that every single move made in the war on terror has been an unbelievable mistake. When the opposition displays such a crazed, unending, berserk desire to rip someone to shreds, I can’t help but wonder what has caused such blinding hatred, such ridiculous zealotry, that someone could lose their entire sense of reason, leaving them incapable of rationally evaluating both the bad and the good. When someone is that drastic with their hatred, so over the top with their constant clamoring, I tend to tune them out. Because if someone is completely incapable of finding anything positive at all in such a complex situation, I’m more inclined to believe their mind has been closed by a wealth of preconceived prejudices.

It seems our world has been overwhelmed by such people. So many have been so brainwashed into such behavior that it can become downright impossible to try to look at the war on terror from an unbiased, purely subjective point of view. But when our world loses its objectivity, we’re going to sink into an even bigger pit than we already find ourselves in.
Considering all of this, imagine my surprise when I came across this article from – of all places – a British newspaper. It seems to be striving to regain at least a semblance of objectivity, taking a look at the war on terror and President Bush’s place in it from a more historical perspective, removed from the rabid clamoring of the Left as it has been desperately clawing at power for eight straight years. The article is well worth a read, as it is a single meek voice of reason trying to stand up against a sea of venomous screamers.
Never the less, its words must not be taken as scripture; objectivity must never be cast aside, of course. But still, it’s at the very least a refreshingly different tone from a surprisingly different point of view.
Click here to check it out.

Hehe, so this kind of reminds me of that story I once heard of the soldier who had his photo taken with Hillary Clinton, but ended up flashing a hand gesture that was military code for “I’m under duress”. I guess these particular soldiers had heard about Obama snubbing their fellow uniformed men and women during his other various trips abroad. Check it out, courtesy Gateway Pundit:

President-elect Obama stopped by the Marine Corps base in Hawaii Kaneche Bay where servicemen and -women were eating Christmas dinner in Kailua Thursday evening.

“Just wanted to say hi, hey guys,” Obama said as he walked into the Anderson dining hall which was decked out in Christmas decorations.

The diners represented seven military units — Marine and Navy — some of whom were joined by their families for Christmas dinner.

As Obama entered the room, it was absent of the regular fanfare of cheering and clapping. The diners were polite, staying seated at their respective tables and waited for the president-elect to come to them to stand up.

Awesome! Very well done, soldiers, and Merry Christmas to you too! I am kinda sorry your Christmas dinner was crashed, though. I hope Santa was at least extra kind to you to make up for it.

My friend Robert over at POW in CA has written a brilliant post about the history of General Eric Shinseki, whom Obama has recently named as the new Secretary of Veteran Affairs. The post itself is a bit long, but believe me, it’s worth it. Aside from doing a brilliant job outlining the ludicrous nature of this appointment, toward the end of the post, Robert does a brilliant job of outlining just a few remarkable liberal lies surrounding this man’s career. As a side now, please also pay special attention to the information provided about how extensively President Clinton gutted our military during the 1990s. That’s something I wish more Americans were familiar with.
So what are you waiting for? Check it out!

My congratulations to Ann E. Dunwoody, our nation’s first female four-star general. As the daughter of a military veteran, I couldn’t be prouder of you!
(Thanks to Captain Capitalism for the link!)

I just watched the whole original video. It’s so much worse. You have to see this.

If this doesn’t make you weep for your country, if this doesn’t shake you to the core, then we have lost what this country means. If this doesn’t scare you to death like it does me, then there’s no hope left for us. There aren’t enough expletives in the world to convey the shock, the fear, the outright devastation. This country has been sold to the absolute devil. I’m sorry, but this is too far down that road. In heaven’s name, what have we done?

Listen to Obama’s new Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on their new “civilian national defense force”. Surprise, it’s mandatory!

Two words: Holy. Shit.
Sorry, but those are the only two words suitable for that. Holy freaking shit. (Don’t worry, I’m not Joe Biden, I realize that now brings the total up to three.)
Yes, that was Rahm Emanuel saying that there would be a mandatory three month training program for a universal defense force for ALL 18 to 24 year olds. Ha, aren’t Democrats cute? And here they were all worried that Bush would be the one reinstating the draft! No, no, no, it was the Democrats all along! Although just like Obama and his clever “tax deduction” for 95% of Americans, they’re just redefining what “draft” means. They’re dressing it up, giving it a snazzier name, so they can resell the same product in a bigger, better, cuddlier package. But you know what? No matter how they dress it up, mandatory service is still mandatory service.
Yet another thing I can thank my generation for. Thanks, idiots! Obama said it on the campaign trail, did you seriously think he wasn’t serious about his intentions? For the man who’s supposedly so good with his words, do you really expect us to believe that something like that just slipped out and he didn’t really mean it? Wake up and smell the napalm, buddies, this is what they have in store for you. I wish I could say I was making this up, believe me, I really, really wish I was making this up. Then I think I could sleep better at night.
Like I said, two words: Holy. Shit.