Christmas eve

Today is Christmas eve. And it should be a happy joyous day. Instead a grayness hangs over everything today like the weather outside.

On saturday, we adopted a puppy. A fluffly little furball we named bear. A Chow/ Black lab mixture.

Yesterday i went to pick him up from Animal control. He was a little droppy but I woas told not to worry about that. He had just had surgery to be neutered and it was normal to be droopy for about 24 hours after the surgery. He stayed quiet all evening and night. This morning he wasn't any better and just got worse. About 10:00 Yvette was worried about how limp and listless he was so I took him to the Vet. I was told he had pneumonia and was to sick to survive it. So I made the decision to have him put down. That was a very hard decision. This puppy we had JUST brought into our lives was being put to death because he was too sick to recover. It was less than 24 horus he was here and I still cried over it. Maybe I am just to tender hearted, but sitting there looking at him laying on the exam table barely breathing and just looking at me. I called Yvette and we talked about it and I made the decision. The nurse came in and I signed ownership over to the Dr and they took him away. I know it was a painless process and probably kinder than letting him die of sickness. But I still wonder if maybe we shouldn't have fought to save him.

I do want a dog, and given what happened to bear we should be able to get another from Animal Control, but I don't know if I want to go through losing another one so soon.

Trials ...

Well The latest news is that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is going to be brought to New York and tried in civilian criminal court. I think that they will probably start with what? 3,000 some odd Murder charges?

Conspiracy to commit murder? Terrorism? I am sure there is a whole laundry list of charges that can be brought against him. The question is, can they be sustained?

There is some question of that I would think. After-all the procedures in a Military / war situation and a civilian criminal case are radically different

Very few if any of the rights and procedures guaranteed to a civilian criminal suspect were followed in his capture.

Additionally, the administration wants to try him in New York City. I understand that this is where his crime occurred, but do they really think they can find an impartial Jury?

I would think Change of venue would be the very first motion filed. Can you even find an impartial Jury anywhere in the US?

There has been a lot of coverage given to the case. enough that one could argue All potential juries are tainted.

Also, does the Government have sufficient evidence to secure a conviction without compromising our intelligence community?

Eric Holder claims he does. I remain skeptical.

I worry that regardless of the evidence available, that by the standards of civilian criminal court the case is hopelessly tainted.

On the other hand khalid sheikh mohammed had indicated that he may represent himself. In that case he almost certainly would not have the best defense possible.

Which is a bad thing. If we are going to make the mistake of trying him in a civilian court then we had better make sure he has the best defense that is possible.

If not, then the claim will be the case was a put-up and a show trial. While some are going to say that anyway I am sure the credibility will be less if he has a top legal team.

Whereas if he tries to bungle through the case by himself it makes him the victim of the US kangaroo court in the eyes of our critics.

I don't think we can just grab him and stuff him in a cell somewhere for the rest of his life. As a human being who was captured, he should have a trial.

But this is in a war situation and I think a Military tribunal is probably the best course, or the least worst.

In a military tribunal you get the trial and US military secrets are preserved.

On the Domestic front, this is a Major Political gamble for Obama's administration.

If they secure a conviction, the death penalty, and a swift execution then he can play up the triumph of US courts to handle terrorism

without the need for the harshness of the Failed Bush tribunals.

On the other hand, if for some reason the case falls apart and he walks then it will be a massive PR failure

for the Democratic party. One which the Republicans will be able to pounce on and will certainly hurt them severly in the next round of elections.

Wed. Night

Last night we went to see Star wars in concert at the Gwinnett Arena.

It was a lot of fun to hear the music live. I have always loved the Star wars music and hearing performed live was a real treat.

Anthony Daniels narrated and had a fairly humorous turn.

Not sure what else to write at this time. Earlier today I had a lot of things I was thinking of writing about but somehow by now I can't seem to remember what I was going to talk about.

All Hallow's eve.. eve

Its the night before Halloween.

Once again I have finally sat down to blog. I don't know how long this will be tonight as I am just writing down whatever goes through my brain tonight. I guess its random Thoughts time.

Its a drizzly foggy night out and I may try to get some interesting pictures in a little bit. I am going to try and stop down the camera and get some long exposure images and see if I can come up something interesting. I may have to put the polarizing filter on too. I haven't gotten and gotten myself a Neutral density filter yet but I need one or maybe 2 so I can start taking some long exposures during the day.

I also need to find myself an AC adapter for the camera so i can do those kind of shots without sucking down the battery.

The house unveiled their version of the health-care reform bill. It weighs in at just a hair under 2000 pages. Who knows what lies in this monstrosity of a bill.

One of the best sources I have seen for what's going in Washington is Jamie Dupree.

I would honestly agree that we should have a way to provide at least routine check-ups and perhaps non-emergency, non-catastrophic care for reasonably cheap prices.

Now this is admitedly my arm-chair quarterbacking, but it seems as if there is a multi-prong problem preventing the care from being delivered at reasonable cost.

1)On the whole consumers don't see the whole cost. For the majority of Americans the costs are hidden behind insurance co-pays and percentages or Government care such as Medicare and Medicaid.

2) Insurance premiums (paticularly Mal-practice) rates are astronomically high because there is no limit on the non-medical costs of a suit. I think there should be compensation for costs of care and lost compensation, but the punitive and emotional damage awards send the costs of suits so high that insurance becomes almost prohibitively expensive. These costs are then passed through the system.

3) For those who do NOT have insurance or government assistance, the cost is extremely high. As a result they default on paying and the costs they incur are passed on through the system to the rest of us. This tends to be a positive feedback loop that continues to drive prices higher.

So what to do?

I don't know all the answers. Some things seem like they would help. For one, enact TorT reform. Enable "cafe" pricing. This way consumers know the costs up front and can shop for better prices.

Encourage high-deductible HSA type accounts. Perhaps through tax breaks for insurance plans. This will further encourage consumers to save insurance for catastrophic health issues. If people have to pay for the care out of their own pockets it will put pressure on providers to lower costs as to encourage competition.

Allow insurance plans to cross state lines. Allow consumers to build a custom policy by buying various types of coverage and exclude others. A single young male hardly needs his policy to handle maternity or OB/GYN care. He also probably doesn't need care for various other ailments that usually hit only older people. Of course this leads to the possibility that someone will be caught with something that isn't covered. But if you have a fall-back to a comprehensive catastrohic plan it can help.

To encourage people who are not covered or are insufficiently covered or are in financial trouble to not default on their bills offer a Low or Zero interest loan to cover the costs. there would have to be penalties for defaulting on this, but it could shift the cost off health-care initially and help bring down prices.

Just a few thoughts

Saw this today on one of my mailing lists and thought it was cool. Solar System Modeler

On other thoughts...

The chorus of one of the songs of TSO's new Album "Night Castle" has me intrigued.

What do you make of them?

I AM THE WAY

I AM THE LIGHT

I AM THE DARK INSIDE THE NIGHT

I HEAR YOUR HOPES

I FEEL YOUR DREAMS

AND IN THE DARK I HEAR YOUR SCREAMS

DON’T TURN AWAY

JUST TAKE MY HAND

AND WHEN YOU MAKE YOUR FINAL STAND

I’LL BE RIGHT THERE

I’LL NEVER LEAVE

AND ALL I ASK OF YOU

Yvette and I talked about the other night and we wonder if this is referential to Jesus.

I don't know. It does seem to point that way but its hard to say.

Anyway, I am going to wrap this up for the night.

Friday Night Almost Saturday

Took the Family to see Toy story and toy story 2 double feature in 3D. We had a lot of fun and poured the kids into bed. Suppose I should hit the bed soon myself.

Its nice to get out and have fun occasionally. I will have to take Joe out again sometime. Tonight was originally scheduled to be time for just Joe and I. I think he still had fun though.

Anyway, not much to write about tonight.

yah for Wed. half way

yah for Wed. half way through the week

Friday Night

Well its 9/11/09 8 years since the day America was attacked. Everyone says the world changed that day, and in many ways it did. But its still very similar in a lot of ways. I get up every day, go to work, raise my kids, love my wife, try to live as Christ would have me live.

I doubt there is much I can say on this day about it that would be different or original from what has already been said by so many others, and so much more eloquently than I.

Instead I am bringing it home.

On Sunday my daughter turns 10. Tonight is her sleep-over Birthday party. 9 girls invited, 8 came and one is on her way home. Homesick. Still aside from some attitude on the part of Stephanie (which is normal for her) its going pretty well.

Jenna isn't feeling her best and threw-up a few times. Its a big deal turning 10. The transition from single to double-digit ages. Of course trying to get a bunch of pre-teen girls to settle down for bed was its own exercise in logistics of sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, and who sleeps next to who and how you arrange the girls so they aren't kicking someone in the head.

Today has been a strange day. Aside from all the memories and associated emotion with This paticular day I have been off all day. Not sure exactly why but just not at ease with myself.

Its getting late and I should go to bed soon, but have to stay up till the girls are asleep in case we lose another.

Wed Night

I thought earlier today of a whole blog post I wanted to make. now I can't even remember what I was going to write about. I know that that I am really getting tired of the fight every night with our youngest for Bed. Its a real fight with her. I don't know why it is so terrible. She refuses to go to bed. Tonight was almost half-hour of her screaming and crying. She wants to read all night and keep the light on. Id almost be tempted to let her, but she shares a room with her older sister who has to go to school in the morning. So of course we can't let her. Finally got ehr to calm down and go to bed. I just wish I knew what to do.

Friday Night

We made it to Savannah. I am sitting on the bed in our hotel room "Residence inn Midtown" and posting from there. Its late and I should probably be going to bed!

Instead I am sitting here typing out thoughts. tomorrow is the beach, and probably a sunburn even if I try to remember the sunblock.

I just sat down and watched this

I don't know about you but the idea of Pledging to serve the President,

even just the office, is very disturbing. To pledge to serve an actual person, who is in that office,

is even more so.

YES, we do pledge to the flag, and in fact I have occasional issues with that when I think about it,

but its representative of our country. Our Armed forces pledge to serve the constitution.

The President is the Commander in Chief, but the Army has not pledged to serve him

Obama has called for a civilian defense force as powerful as our military,

which unlike the military would answer to the office of president.

What is the need for this?

The video was produced to be shown to kids in Utah if I remember reading correctly.

Don't get me wrong, much of what was pledged is not bad stuff, it pretty much follows liberal

ideology and worldview but is mostly harmless in of itself.

Much of it is warm-fuzzy feel good about myself stuff. But throwing in a pledge to

the serve the president? Way Way wrong!

How about the Following pledge?

I pledge to serve Our Father in Heaven first. I pledge to Love my wife as Christ loved the church.

I pledge to raise my children in a manner pleasing to God and to train them up to Walk with Christ.

I pledge to work to preserve the principles of Liberty set forth

in Our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Well

I promised I would try to write more here than i have been.

We are in the midst of trying to repaint and re-arrange the bedroom. We have 2 walls completely painted and the other two walls almost painted. We are running low on tape and paint and I need to get some more. I will probably do it during church tomorrow while kids and Yvette are in Awana.

We are going to Savannah for the weekend and going to spend some time at the beach for Labor Day weekend. It will be nice to get away, but its a LONG drive to Savannah. I am going to see about getting some good pictures. I'd like to get some night stuff, but not sure I will really have much chance too. Not sure its a good idea to walk around Savannah at night with Camera equipment, and its about a half-hour to the beach from the Hotel.

We want to get the painting done before we leave, so I guess I should wrap up and get back to work.

Saturday

Well its Saturday, and we have a busy day planned, I am going to put up a ceiling fan and we are going to start painting our bedroom. Thats going to be quite a chore I think. There is a lot to move around and clean up before we can paint. I am thinking about getting a fan or two to put in the windows and keep the air flowing because of the fumes.

I probably should get off the computer and get started. I will have to post pictures later of what it looks like. Its going to be a real big change I am sure. We have a set of Black sheets etc.. on the bed with a deep red-wine accent pillows. The room color is going to be based off that. Red-wine color on the walls, and black curtains.

I know I havent written here in a really long time.

It just seems as though life kept getting in the way, and then I actually forgot I had this blog. I am going to try and get back into writing though.

Not sure what all I will write. Maybe I can put some of my political rants here.

If I'm lucky... or unlucky the white house will notice and get annoyed!