Obama STIMULIS for EGYPT??!!

Here we go again... another one of many stories of how crazy this administration is and just how far out of touch they are with the American electorate and taxpayers they are supposed to serve and represent.

This government, designed and enacted for the people and by the people at the wisdom of our forefathers, is dominated now by out of touch, socialist, elitists that presume to know what is better for us than we, their masters, do.

Yesterday, on Sunday, July 15, Secretary of State (SoS) Hilary Clinton ended talks with the interim Egyptian "government,” and I use the term government loosely, and she agreed to provide them additional aid of up to $1 billion to help bolster their flailing economy...

Unbelievable, though it is true, and this administration is allowing this to happen, endorsing it wholeheartedly, despite national records in deficit, unemployment and stalled economic growth in all sectors. We are in a major recession, jobs are at a premium, I would find it hard pressed to explain and get buy-in from any large constituency in this country that spending and additional $1 Billion in taxpayer money is in our best interests. That stimulating the Egyptian economy, when our own is stagnant, is in our national best interests…

Egypt currently doesn't even have a true government. At this point they are still being led by a military council that is reluctant to relinquish power to the civilian elected body.

Now did you cue in earlier to when I stated "additional aid", well here's what I was referring to: Back in April of this year, the Obama administration quietly released $1.5 billion in foreign aid to this freshman Egyptian “government”; this government, overseen by the military, which is now dominated by an Islamic brotherhood-led coalition in their parliament. Our President gave this “government” which also does not guarantee human rights, personal freedoms and civil rights equally to men and women and which treats LGBT as criminals; a government whose law that is dominated by religious sectarian interpretation of Sharia law, Obama gave them $1.5 Billion of our American taxpayer money.

So on top of that $1.5 billion given to them just 3 months ago, where it has all gone and whose pockets it is in all now we don't know, now via SoS Clinton, we have given them another up to $1 Billion dollar handout... Remember now, this is a technically a brand new government, in its infancy so to speak, which no declaration of friendship or alliance to the United States. Now, being led by a religio-political coalition called the [Islamic] Brotherhood, one of whose chief aims is the destruction of the Israeli state and another is the subjugation and conversion of all races to Islam.

On top of this, the democrats are continuing the debate of raising taxes on the American "rich" and threatening of raising taxes on all working Americans this upcoming January 1st...

I would say there will be a huge fight, not only from the republicans, but from all working/taxpaying Americans on this additional taxation. Especially noteworthy when this legislative body cannot even create and adhere to a budget for one single year. Why wouldn't we??!!

Why would you let your government tax you even more to extend entitlements, to not only your own unwilling and non-productive citizens, but to other countries (who do not have our country's best interest in hand), in an effort to win their hearts and minds support or is it a payment – are we now paying at a national level the Jizya to Islam?

Why should we let the government continue to raise our taxes without a plan on how they intend to spend that revenue and how those expenditures are in the best interests of all Americans and how they also plan to eliminate the additional debt we have doubled/incurred in the last 3 years of this current administration...

"Incoherent but Brilliant" Healthcare - also known as BULLSHIT!

So here it goes, my recession devalued two cents on a matter that is still being publicly discussed and weighed.  Disappointment for some, elation for others - for me though, disappointing in the extreme, not for a political idealogy but for the United States of America and the integrity of our highest court and our CONSTITUTION.

Fourteenth President of the United States of America, Franklin Pierce, said,

"The storm of frenzy and faction must inevitably dash itself in vain against the unshaken rock of the Constitution."

The sad thing is that this non-partisan view of the CONSTITUTION cost him his second term of office, as the Democrats replaced him with James Buchanan.

Now I understand that the Supreme Court, AKA SCOTUS, has made their ruling and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act AKA Obamacare will stand (for now). My trouble is that what I had originally believed about Justice Roberts' ruling and his reasoning was actually wrong. His unquestionable integrity is now, in my mind, quite in the opposite, questionable... leaving Pelosi and the lefties to truthfully and arguably "Blame Bush" for the successful passage of that public law.

But in all seriousness, I really believe the dissenting judges got it right. I am aware of the fact that the justices have consciences and must sometimes rule in a manner they personally disagree with, but that is because it is based on law or precedent OR according to the Constitution, the guiding priniciple of law of this nation. But the majority opinion just looks like a mob looking for rationale, a REASON to make the law WORK rather than whether it follows our CONSTITUTION or not, which is the antithesis of what I believed SHOULD be a SCOTUS Justices' view.

Someone was recently quoted as describing Chief Justice Roberts' opinion as

“incoherent but brilliant.”

You will have to pardon my language, BUT WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!

in·co·her·ent   [in-koh-heer-uhnt] Adj.
Without logical or meaningful connection; disjointed; rambling

The person who put incoherent and brilliant in the same sentence is a dumbass, those two words together in a sentence just do not reconcile at all...

What I had initially understood was that Justice Roberts was exercising personal courage and integrity to call a tiger a tiger by its stripes, by ruling that the law was a tax law BUT in retrospect that doesn't jive with the rest of his opinion...

The fact that since the penalty "tax" hasn't been implemented (makes that judgment moot); since no tax implementation means this should not have been ruled on right now and that since therefore the individual mandate was ruled as UNCONSTITUTIONAL the whole thing should have been sent back to the body of legislative mentally challenged idiots (we call them CONGRESS) who wrote it. And yes, they are the same dumbasses that never even read it in the first place prior to its initial passing; there they could endeavor to do it over again, without the individual mandate... Since it is not SCOTUS' job to EDIT law but only to adjudicate it as CONSTITUTIONAL OR NOT, it therefore should have been nullified.

Roberts' opinion then, becomes not one of CONSTITUTIONAL ADJUDICATION but one of a more personal nature; that of VALIDATION OF THE SCOTUS as an institutional body and not a ruling on the actual CONSTITUTIONAL MERIT of Obamacare...

Chief Justice Roberts ended up making a change in his decison, it appears, under duress and pressure, from BOTH the left-leaning press and the public podium scolding of President Obama. Changing his decision into a defense of and defining or protecting the Supreme Court institution from the press or any detractors instead of basing his opinion on the law and the CONSTITUTION. The whole idea for their life term appointments to the Supreme Court is supposed to eliminate any of this kind of strongarming to a decision.

In Marbury vs. Madison, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in the majority opinion:

“A law repugnant to the Constitution is void.”

Obamacare, by the very nature of the individual mandate is UNCONSTITUTIONAL and REPUGNANT and should have been therefore nullified.  The WHOLE legislation should then have been sent back down to CONGRESS to fix it.  It would then have to go back through the whole ratification process over and then sent to the President for signature.

Even Grover Cleveland, a Democrat President, regularly VETOed Congressional legislation that had been championed by his own party  because it presumed too much and overstepped Constitution restraints and enumerated powers.

President Cleveland was known to have said the following:

"A government for the people must depend for its success on the intelligence, the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people themselves."

and he also said,

"Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters."

Notably, regarding government entitlements and handouts President Cleveland also said:

"Though the people support the government; the government should not support the people."

Grover Cleveland should be a symbol to Democrats that you can take strong personal positions and yet not overstep the Constitution.  Cleveland espoused a theory of limited government...

The enumerated powers are a list of items found in Article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution that set forth the authoritative capacity of the United States Congress. In short, it maps out to Congress the powers they may exercise, granted to them in the Constitution, and they are further restricted by the Bill of Rights and other protections of the individual citizens and states in the Constitution. The 10th Amendment to the Constitution states,

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Nowhere in the Costitution or the Bill of Rights, nor in any of the Amendments, does it give the Congress the right of or power to make healthcare a national right or to even define healhcare as an unalienable right to be ensured in universal disbursement WITHOUT CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION; therefore, healthcare in any form is reserved to the States and or the people themselves, which arguably is health insurance in the private sector as we know it now.

As a matter of fact, because of this questionable CONSTITUTIONALITY, quite a few of the states have refused to start financing or funding the mandated exchanges that are supposed to be in effect by 2014 to effect the choices and begin to enforce the mandate... These states are banking on change in the upcoming elections and that the newly seated Congress next year will act to repeal the law...
When Governors of states act that strongly, there is definitely a problem with the law.

Interestingly though, the Court did not bring up Munn vs. Illinois, in 1877, where it was ruled that

"Businesses that serve the public interest are subject to regulation by STATE government..."

Health insurance companies = public interest = State government regulation NOT Federal...

I also find it interesting that in 1990, Cruzan vs. Missouri Dept. of Health, the court found that while the Constitution protects a person's right to reject life-preserving medical treatment ("right to die"), it also left it up to STATES to regulate that interest as long as the regulation is reasonable... Wouldn't it be, following that logic, that in the area of health AND healthcare, that people can reject imposed health care, and if not, that STATES would be in charge of the reasonable legislation of that healthcare - especially being, going back to the Constitution, that healthcare is NOT enumerated as a Federal government power...??

You be the judge... what do you think? What legal or CONSTITUTIONAL precendent do you offer, outside of the unintelligible "incoherent" recent ruling that follows no logical legal precedent or course other than a personal reputation agenda...

Catholicism, Mr. Obama and the US Constitution

So, earlier today, I was on the air, briefly with Mr. Hugh Hewitt, the topic of his radio show was of course the hot potato of the Obama order for the Catholic Church to provide health insurance services for their workers that are contrary to their faith and teaching. The order, I might add, that he has since "modified", through expert smoke and mirrors, that still does not change the essential fact that he is still holding the Catholic Church to providing sterilization and contraceptives to their workers against their theology as a free and long established religion in the United States, as a matter of fact the Catholic Church was on this continent almost 300 years before the Constitution was ratified and in effect.

Well, anways, I called into the show and Hugh's screener patiently listened to me and then Mr. Hewitt graciously allowed me to go on the air and voice my opinion...

To let you all into where I was mentally when I started speaking here's a bit of the background:

Some ignorant callers had the gall to say that Catholics could "choose to use or not to use" those services and some also pointed out the examples (terrible ones at that) of Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, and others, even the caller herself, as stating they are "Good Catholics" that believe in the use of sterilization, abortion and artificial contraception...I was personally incensed by this lack of understanding of Catholicism, one held by many igorant people in America and even some Catholics themselves, but not only that but also by the simple fact that these folks considered themselves to be "Good Catholics" yet even as they remain defiantly opposed in word and deed to the theology and dogma of our Church as directed by Its leader, the Holy Father, our Pope in Rome.

Don't get me wrong, and some of you will, and say that I am JUDGING these fellow Catholics and I am not, I am saying they are wrong in their assumption that if they continue to do what is in direct contradiction to the Church's teaching, believing that if they still go to Mass and take their sacraments and tithe, that they are "good Catholics"... Unfortunately its not that simple, the Catholic faith is not an a'la carte menu that we can choose what we want to be part of and what we don't want to be part of. Catholicism by its very nature means UNIVERSAL, one faith through a unified theology. Just like any of the major religions of the world, they and the Catholic Church all have major pillars of their faith that set them apart, part of their root dogma and belief system...

Of course, one of the problems is that American Catholics, in our great freedom experiment of a country; freedom of spirit and action, we have chosen to take a path that has over time become quite a bit liberal to the rest of our brothers and sisters in the Universal Faith. A great deal of our errant path was due to the the liberal bishops of the 70's. American "cradle" Catholics, those born and baptised into the franchise, have largely taken for granted the wonders and tenets that our Church professes and teaches; we dropped what is inconvenient to us by the wayside and only kept that which was personally and politically convenient to us at the time... I say "we" collectively because I was one too. As we got older we lost that wonder and astonishment that the Church had for us that adult converts to Catholicism still have... Some of us, myself and quite a few others, have come back to it, it is relevant once again to us and we accept it in its entirety in intellectual obedience. NOTE: The Catholic Church doesn't want mindless zombie followers, it wants us to think and be critical and then CHOOSE to follow her DESPITE what we think, and that my friends is FAITH.

Ok that was the background that I came into my comments on the air with Mr. Hugh Hewitt.

I wrote down my thoughts on a notepad so that when he let me on the air I wouldn't be a mindless babbler, uuh uhhing my way through it....

((1)) This is not a Catholic issue, this is a fundmental 1st Amendment Issue. The Federal Government shall make no law regulating nor prohibiting the free exercise or expression of a religion and that of religious freedom.

((2)) Liberal Social Legislation and liberal social morality passed by a legilsative body, no matter how officious sounding, still does not trump that 1st Amendment protection afforded to ALL religions, religious dogma, theology or church morality and teaching...

((3)) To use Biden and Pelosi as examples of "good Catholics" is to use Lee Harvey Oswald and Charles Whitman as examples of good Marines... yeah, maybe once they were, but they have taken what was pure and later have executed it in a perversion of the original intent. They either accept the Catholic faith teachings as they are intended by the Holy Father or they really need to leave and become one of the many liberal Christian faiths that allow moral flexibility and condone abortion, sterilization and mercy killing. There are special children in this world that are here despite the admonition by some in-laws and other adults to terminate the pregnancy and lives are better for them being here, though not easy, they are enriching for their very presence among us...

Star Wars Airlines Courtesy of Uncle Sam? Really? Maybe...

Yes maybe... Bear with me, a little background first, as I take you on a circuitous route to the source of my outrage at members of the Progressive left who want to spend yet more unaccounted and unfunded US taxpayer money to cover up another one of this administration's mistakes. A gross mistake that could result in the serious loss of American and foreign lives and aircraft - CIVILIAN lives and aircraft that is.

Ok, follow me, it may start slow and tedious but we'll get there...

Now, the Arab Spring has recently not only resulted in a temporary windfall of freedoms but also in the rise of Islamic populist self governance, which is just a nice flowery way of saying the genesis of the next incarnation of religio-bully government. This trend is sweeping select Middle East and north African countries... Yemen, Syria, Egypt and Libya to name just a few, but there are others that are just simmering, steaming under pressure, creeping up a fissure just under the surface (like Mount Saint Helens in the hours before its May 18, 1980, eruption). Al great deal of them are just spectating; waiting to see how it goes with their neighbors and friends, to see what WE and the rest of the world do, or fail to do.

This administration supported some of these revolutions, and I say REVOLUTIONS because they are just that, bloody and ugly conflicts of internal civil and governance matters and they are NOT psychdelic, flowery, Woodstock conventions of peaceful, hash smoking and around the May pole debates as the term Arab Spring implies. Some are being supported openly with military action, as well as/ or in lieu of military advisory and logistical support.

Specifically in Libya, Mr. Obama exhorted our NATO allies to take the lead in policing their Mediterranean neighbor to the south and then he obligated U.S. military forces to support the interventions under Presidential authority (which allows him to commit troops up to 90 days without having to have a Congressional vote of war or to enact hostilities)... My problem with this, as well as many others concerning Mr. Obama., is that HE also had diplomatic and military relations with the former Ghaddafi government routinely previous to and leading up to Mr. O's implied alliance with the Libyan rebels.. Therefore, legally speaking through precedent, "O" legitimized Ghadafi's regime, ignoring the "atrocities and civil rights abuses" that he and his Progressive cronies are NOW up in arms about in their zeal to sprinkle the Arab Spring fairy dust all over Washington.

Vexing me, and it eventually leads to the quirky title of this blog post and rant, as I take you on this jungle trail of thought (or maybe lack of thought, you decide), is this:

Flash back 2009: Why, Mr. Obama, if Moammar's regime was so evil and abusive that we have to spend millions of dollars a day to have an American aircraft carrier BATTLE GROUP on station in the operational area, either striking Ghadafi loyalist targets in Libya or flying a CAP and having patrols armed and ready to strike... why did you authorize the sale of tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons and military logistical items, items that were previously RESTRICTED to those nations? Billions with a B, to Middle Eastern and other nations, two of the beneificiary of that sale being Libya and Egypt...

What was included in those sales? I'll tell you what, let's explore that:

MANPORTABLE SURFACE TO AIR MISSILES, yep! Which by the way is a main ingredient of the Islamic fundamental terrorist and anarchist cookbook. The same type of class of missiles that are being used to effectiveness against American troop helicopters in Afghanistan (except those are OLDER less technological versions than these newer ones). Oh and THANK GOD, our administration wasn't at least STUPID enough to sell them the best, Stinger technology, that our troops currently carry as portable light anti-air defense. But they did sell them something that is still very VERY effective against unsuspecting CIVILIAN helicopters, light planes and commercical airliners... These "Red-Eye" anti-aircraft missiles use infra-red and passive heat seeking to find and damage or destroy air targets.

OK, now that you understand the capability, let explore the quantity shall we? How about wrapping your head around this ---> WELL OVER 30,000 units to Libya alone... Are you picking up what I'm laying down so far? Good. Now this was less than two years ago in 2009. Sorry Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer and the rest of the San Francisco Democrats in other states, you can't blame this one on George Bush! Therein the foundation of my outrage has been laid.

Ok, flash forward, 2011:
Queue the lights, cameras, and ACTION! Enter Stage Right: Arab Spring... Remember how President Obama encouraged the European allies along with our military aircraft to strike at Ghadafi loyalists? Yes, right? Good. Now, what constitutes a Ghadafi loyalist? Apparenty, you were wearing an actual uniform of the Libyan military... Soooo, we attacked their bases and depots... Guess what's in ammunition depots and who usually guards ammunition depots? If you guessed Ammunition and ordnance and guarded by soldiers in the uniform of their country you are smarter than a 1st grader! Now, if you were a soldier, wearing a uniform of your country's military and guarding a target would you stick around that imminent catastrosphe? HELL NO, not if you are a Libyan soldier! Soooo, the unguarded ammunition depots were looted and now there is a CONSERVATIVE estimate that OVER 20,000 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles are missing and that they could be sold to Al Quaeda and used against soft targets such as civilian airliners, small planes and helicopters...

Ok here's where my head spins like Linda Blair in the Exorcist... Upon this being discovered and reported to the media the the twin towers of the California Democratic brain trust, Boxer and Pelosi, want to supply and equip civilian airliners with the same technology that US military planes use to defeat these types of anti-aircraft missiles AT GOVERNMENT EXPENSE to the starting estimate of over $6 BILLION... And knowing that nothing involving the government ever meets the estimate, nor is it ontime, nor it is ever well thought out when its reactionary to cover up and quell further discussion on how we arrived at this dilemma... My favorite quote of this whole debacle is the one about why we sold all this restricted hardware to all these countries that are not exactly on the A list of America's Super Friends:

"If you cut off arms sales, a client would go straight to U.S. competitors like Russia or China," he said, adding that "American monitoring of private defense sales is more systematic than most other nations."

Matthew Schroeder, an arms expert with the Federation of American Scientists.

Really?! The Democrats are like the Private First Class who just got his first checking account and thinks, "I GOT CHECKS I GOT MONEY..." Except that they go a step further with, "Well we got checks, we can PRINT MORE MONEY TOO!"

I give up trying to figure them out, I am typing this closing with only the aid of my medulla oblongata and nerve spasms to my fingers because my brain melted and that is the only thing keeping me breathing and going at this point. These Progressives are just clueless. Really??!! Yeah, really! Good morning, good evening and good night.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/03/11/us_arms_sales

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44685978/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

Been a long time, been a long lonely, lonely, lonely time...

It's been quite some time since I sat down and wrote here in my blog and I mainly apologize to myself for that since it is my outlet and something that I promised myself I would do no matter what... once a month minimum....

Back in swing soon, especially with a new politcal election process and the ensuing disinformation and dirt slinging.

Wil out.

My Adventures in Triple Bypass Surgery

It's been good to hear from you all family, brother Marines, friends and all with valid questions about my open heart surgery and I'll answer them up in short order and give you some background.

Almost 3 months ago in September, around the 25th I had some chest pressure as I was going to bed. When I would lay down it felt like someone was standing on my sternum, when I sat up it would go away.. talked with Dee and she said you are going to the hospital.

Remember us men, we don't usually go to the Dr. on our own like we should... YOU should.

They admitted me to the hospital and I stayed overnight. They found no signs of cardiac enzymes indicative of a heart attack, they told me it was probably an angina attack but that I did have quite a few risk factors: I was overweight, I snored (yes snoring is a risk factor called sleep apnea) family history of heart disease on mom and dad sides, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and a touch of adult onset diabetes due to my weight and lack of exercise. So the doctor, still concerned, gave me mainly beta blockers for hyper tension, cholesterol pills, and even some good ole nitroglycerine to get the ticker back if I did feel a heart attack coming on. Mind you this was in September.

Fact: Dr. told me all men over the age of 40 should take one baby aspirin every day or so, to help keep the blood from developing random clots that can cause stroke or heart attacks. Other risk factors include: Major alcohol usage, more than 8-12 drinks a week. SMOKING.... High sodium/salt usage contributes to high blood pressure which damages your arteries...

I started an exercise program and was doing 30-40 minutes of cardio 3-4x week and abs and chest and arms, plus playing raquetball against young Marines... 30 minutes a day MINIMUM non-work related cardio/walking/jogging makes a difference... it contributed to my rapid recovery and I am still losing weight as I recover.

Well, November15ish, (the doctor from 9/25 called me back and had asked if they had scheduled and done the cardiolight yet- they hadn't- he got on it- this guy saved my life in my humbke opinion) .

They finally scheduled my cardiolight treadmill stress test for 11/27. It's a test that is actually done in 2 parts. First part they get you on a treadmill and get your heart work rate up 65% from normal rest then they shoot you with a radioactive isotope solution (cardiolight) and put you on an MRI-like camera device that takes pictures of your heart in a circular motion for like 16 minutes. Then you come back for a resting heart rate picture the next day. They shoot the isotope in you, make you eat a fatty breakfast, I know the irony was not lost on me, and then after an hour shoot pictures of your heart again and send you home.

That evening my medical group called me, the cardiologist who read my test results says, "You have to check into the ER and stay overnight for observation." On my part, I did my best sea lawyer arguing with this guy: that it was Saturday night and nothing would be done until Monday was my main issue, which he conceded. The cadiologist didn't recommend me staying home, he highly recommended that for my age it was an emergency and to come in. I told him I would be in on Sunday AM, I reasoned with myself.

I had been at dinner with my son Jerymiah and his sister Jesika and as I drove back home I was thinking the worst possibe scenarios, so I texted Dee and told her that I was checking in and I would be in the Fontana Kaiser hospital Saturday night... After one night there, they then transferred me to St. Bernardine's Catholic Hospital on Sunday night so I could get an angiogram done Monday AM, which is the normal routine for an abnormal cardiolight test.

Monday around 11 AM-ish, they took me for my angiogram. It was a nice BIG clear HD screen, they shot some iodine dye into my heart - which I must say is impressive to feel...

Angiogram: They insert a catheter into the artery at your groin and shove a long probe thing up into your heart, they then shoot dye into your heart and INSTANTLY your whole body feels hot, like the proverbial "hot heroin body rush", similar I hear. Then you can see every artery and valve of your heart...

As he starts focusing the screen onto my heart I can actually SEE one of the blockages before he even points it out to me, it looked like two pencils held an inch apart connected by a thread, the thread being all that was open for blood to pass through, then he showed me another, then as he was saying there's a third one, all I heard was Charlie Brown's parents... All I could think was, "They are cracking my chest open. I could die on the table, they are gonna pop open my chest..." the Dr., "mwah mwah mwah mwah..." You are over saturated with info before and up to this point, there is a channel on the hospital TV - I had already watched the program, I had read all the literature they gave me and the little info-comics.. I was in a state of dread and scared.

So in a sense, yeah, this extremeness of condition was as news to me as it was to all of you, even though my denial states had already told me that I had issues inside of me, but it was real news as I posted it from my phone. Dr. said, all we need to do now is schedule you for the surgery, it could be as early as tomorrow or next week. We talked, I talked to Dee and my son, we all decided to go with the next day since I was already there, and hell- would I even have come back next week??!!

Surgery prep was something else, they shaved my whole chest (it is coming back in now and its driving me crazy) and they shaved both my legs - they were going to be taking an artery from my right leg but if that one wasn't good enough they needed my left left prepped. They wheeled me to the pre op room where Sister Catherine prayed with me. Then they. wheeled me into the surgery theater and it was surreal, they all introduced themselves to me, each face hovering over mine as I looked up as lights and stainless steel. It was cheery mood, music was playing, then I don't remember anything... blackness.

I awoke to the feeling of something being jammed into my neck and I was thinking, "Shit, they didn't give me enough sleepy night night, I am waking up in surgery." It wasnt, it was in the recovery room in CCU. They were trying to put something called a SWAN into my jugular that had a blood gas probe on it that would sit in my heart, but they coudln' get it in right, so I never worked right and they left it there for 3 days and my neck was like a steel cord after all that jabbing jamming they were doing... its sore still as it relaxes even now.

They made me get up out of bed the morning after my surgery - that was awful pain. Waking up post op with a tube in my throat had been scary too. Even though they told me, "you will have a tube in your throat breathe like you do when you are scuba diving..." I fought the respiratory tech folks and was pointing at the tube and miming it pulled out and everything, I was mad, irritable and anxious and wanted that damn thing out- but they fought back and told me to follow their instructions because if they pulled it and I was too weak to breathe on my own it would go back in. I couldn't argue with that logic at all, I stopped fighting and complied... I was dreaming of sucking on ice cubes as I was waiting to get the thing out and get my breathing up to their standards to get the intibation tubes out.

After almost 4 hours I had done enough to get it pulled out, but brother the damage was done. Because I had not been as calm and compliant as I should have been, my throat was raw and swollen and all I ate for the first 2 days was jello, ice cream, broth and ice cubes and water and a little sugar free lemon shasta soda...

Pulling the tube was just nothing like I'd ever thought it'd be, I mean I have watched ER and House, it never was that bad when they pulled their tubes...I was wrong, it was gnarly! As they pull it out of your larynx you have a total nasty mucous layer and saliva seal around your esophagus, the tubes comes out and pulls that "shit" out too and it is nasty! A big old green saliva and snot bomb they have to suction quickly or you could drown if it drops into your larynx just vacated by the intibation tube. I was happy to be breathing on my own, ragged as my throat was.

Next for me to deal with was the pain of my broken sternum; they cut my "breastbone" in half to pry open my ribs and get to my heart for the surgery. I stopped morphine after 2 days and went to just vicodin for 3 more and then went cold turkey. I take an occasional Alleve now, but no more opiates for me, I don't need an addiction and that stuff stops you up, and I am an onery person if I am constipated!!

They had me up and walking, like I said earlier, literally like within 8 hours after surgery, first just to a chair in my room to sit up in, then around the unit... They would ask me, "do you want to move back into the bed?" and I was thinking "HELL NO, that shit hurts!" but just said, "No, I'd rater sit in the chair." They told me it was great that I was sitting up- hell I just didn't want the pain of getting into bed. I never knew though, til now, how important walking and expanding your lungs is after a surgery like this, but it keeps you from getting pneumonia and actually strengthens your constitution... I am up to 1 hour (+/-) a day walking now.

It's survivable, but it would've been alot harder if I hadn't started that exercise program for a month and a half before the operation, because that really boosted my energy and strength hugely...

Anyway, I hope I anwered your questions? I'm post op day 16 now... 4.5 more weeks to go til I can go back to work, a couple until I can drive... so they say....

Here's some information on sleep apnea and snoring you might find interesting.
http://www.sleepconsultants.com/snoring.html

Second Amendment Under Fire, dodges the bullet!

Constitution of the United States: Amendment II; A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed...

Last Thursday, 24 June 2010, our Constitution and specifically the 2nd Amendment, one of its important first 10 amendments (collectively referred to as the Bill of Rights), which has been under fire very much as of late by this administration was vindicated. The result being that the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America was upheld, wisely I might add, by a majority decision (a slim 5 to 4) of our Supreme Court yesterday.

In writing the majority decision Justice Antonin Scalia properly iterates the role of the Supreme Court:

"Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security and where gun violence is a serious problem," Scalia wrote. "That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct."

Justice Scalia, shows great wisdom and clarity in that excerpt from the decision. Take into account that when our founding fathers crafted the 2nd Amendment, they had two over-arching issues in mind:

1. They wanted to ensure the nation had an armed militia that it could call upon in times of need or national duress. (Note: our Army was very small and as a fledgling nation we were definitely prey for any superpower of the era.)

Case in point, the early 20th Century, Pancho Villa, a Mexican outlaw with a large criminal entourage, was making incursions into two of the border states, New Mexico and Texas. What happened? Well, what happened was that armed American civilians fought off the criminal invaders and eventually the U.S. Army was called in to deal with it. Flash forward to the early 21st Century, we have criminal Mexican and other cartels bringing illegal traffic in the form of humans and drugs across our borders. We again have armed American civilians there, in the form of the group called the "Minutemen" to try to sound the alarm and stem the flow into their home states... Do you think that the U.S. military will come to their aid? Fat chance as the current administration's policy of border security is one of rhetoric and apathy rather than one of strength and security.

2. They also wanted to ensure that the people would not be helpless in the face of the rise of a tyrannical government as they had been when they sought Independece for us from Great Britain and started what kicked off this 230+ year experiment in Freedom and Justice For All...

Now while I also would argue that while the degrees of such needs, and the focus of those demands (and any future), have changed or (yet to be defined), the core exigent demands themselves remain.

That said, I truly believe that we can meet them while retaining some level of diligence and control. Reducing accidents and fatalities from gun use is not so much a matter of continuing to legislate tighter and tighter controls over the inplements, we have gun control now, but rather to address the behaviors that cause the use of the instruments to cause the incidents and enforcement of the existing legislation and controls. The old adage that GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE is key to this premise.

Mandatory training with certified weapons instructors during the waiting period should be incorporated into legislation, again, influencing the philosophy and the mental process of people and how and when they should use a firearm. Of course this is all academic, since the predominance of shootings and crimes with firearms are not done by law abiding individuals but those by and with criminal intentions. These indivduals don't buy their weapons via lawful means either- they steal, bribe and black market these automatice weapons of, what liberals would have us believe, mass destruction...