Back in the saddle...

Wow! I haven't been around for awhile and I do apologize. Things have been very crazy. I got promoted and with that came a lot of extra responsibilities. Now that I've got the hang of everything and have been able to work on my time management I think I can actually get back to the blog world. I know that all 10 of my followers have missed me LOL.

There is a lot happening in America right now that needs to be talked about, but to make this a little more realistic for myself I think I am going to have to stick to one or two posts a week. To those of you who stuck around during my hiatus, I would like to thank you and promise you that I will post plenty of rants and raves that will piss off the liberals (not that it's hard).

Stay tuned!!

It Just Won't Work

How do I know that government run health care would fail and cost American taxpayers millions, billions, or even trillions of dollars? I WORK IN GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE!!

I am in the Navy and I am a hospital corpsmen. I work in a clinic that sees both military members and civilians alike. Navy Medicine is a government run health care system and I can tell you first hand that it sucks!

While at work today I took a glance at our schedule of patients and the reasons for their visits. Out of the 59 patients that walked through our doors today 6 may have actually needed to be here. Ok, let me be fair, 10 of those 59 were here for physical exams so lets not count them. That leaves 49 patients...8 out of 49 people had legitimate reasons to be seen by a doctor.

I will give you a break down of some of the reasons for visits today:
- 5 people had a headache
- 7 patients complained of basic cold symptoms (sneezing, cough, runny nose or congestion-- NO FEVER)
- We even had one person come in with a...wait for it....drum roll please.... A MOSQUITO BITE!

This, America, is your tax dollars hard a work. Instead of running to the store and grabbing a bottle of Motrin or some Dayquil and self medicating themselves they run off to their "free" clinic to get a prescription for things like TYLENOL.

If the government was to offer this kind of health care to the general population, America's debt would very likely double in the first year. People would come out of the woodwork for "free" health care. If someone has allergies and doesn't want to pay for the $12.00 for a bottle of Claritin, all they have to do is go to the "free" doctor and get their "free" medications.

And don't even get me started on the quality of care. Most (not all) of the doctors I work with get so sick of seeing patients for bogus aliments that they just stopped caring. And why should they care? In the current health care system doctors have to work to build a relationship with their patients and be sure that they deliver a high level of quality care to ensure that their patients want to come back again if they need. In a government run system, you as a patient would be assigned to a doctor, you don't get to choose. If you don't like that doctor you may be able to request a new one but not before you fill out mounds of paper work stating a valid reason for your dislike. If the doctor knows that they are going to have a steady flow of patients
no matter what then why should they have to give the slightest damn about weather or not their patients leave satisfied with the level of care they received?

Government run health care is a bad idea. It will cost American tax payers unforeseen amounts and the money would go toward quantity of patients, not the quality of care given. I see a government system of health care every day, I have seen first hand the patients who abuse the
right of "free" health care (see examples above) and I have seen others who are down right fraudulent (faking pain to get "free" narcotic pain killers).

Please don't let the American health care system come to this. Contact your representative and urge them to vote against a public option or any other form of government run system. Let your voice be heard!

An Unarmed Man is a Subject; An Armed Man is a Citizen

My husband came to me today and asked me to look into current gun control legislation floating around Washington. My husband is very passionate about gun ownership rights and after being married to him for 2 ½ years, and listening to his extremely valid points, I have become just as passionate. In the 111th Congress there are currently 27 bills in the House and 11 bills in the Senate, some are for gun ownership rights but most are for gun control.

What is gun control? Well, if you sit down and think about it, gun control is nothing more then a group of laws that hinder law abiding citizens from obtaining firearms. Anyone who has plans to use a firearm for nefarious purposes is not going to walk into a respectable gun shop and register the weapon in their name. They are going to obtain a firearm illegally so it can't be traced back to them. Less then 1% of all violent crimes involving firearms, are committed by the owners of registered guns. Let me put this in prospective for you: On average there are approximately 8 million violent crimes committed in American every year. Of those 8 million, approximately only 700,000 are committed with firearms. Of those 700,000 crimes less then 7000 of those were committed by people who legally obtained the firearm used. Only law abiding citizens would adhere to "rational gun control measures." Criminals don't care about the law; that's why they are called criminals.

There are multiple examples all over the world as to why banning firearms is a very bad idea. Let's start overseas: Both England and Australia have passed laws banning gun ownership. As a result armed robberies have increased by 44 % in Australia and according to The International Crime Victims Survey conducted by Leiden University in Holland, "England and Wales ranked second overall in violent crime among industrialized nations." (By the way, the US didn't even make the top ten) As for in the homeland: In 1976, Washington DC passed laws that made it illegal to own a handgun or have any assembled weapon in the home for personal defense. After that law was passed, murders and violent crimes skyrocketed by 200%, giving DC the highest murder rate in the country.

Thankfully for the citizens of DC, that law was just recently overturned as unconstitutional by the courts. Gun control laws do exactly the opposite of what they are supposed to. They restrict respectable citizens from being able to protect themselves, their families and society in general from violent predators.

As I mentioned earlier there is a lot of legislation concerning gun control currently making its way through congress. The one I would like to focus on is H.R. 45 the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009. Before I go on let me set one thing straight, I believe that a background check should be done every time someone wishes to purchase a firearm but this bill is just ridiculous! The bill would make it illegal to own a firearm unless you are finger printed and can provide a current driver's license along with your Social Security number, these things I have no problem with but the bill would also require people to submit to a physical and mental evaluation each and every time a firearm is purchased. WHAT?!?!?!

In addition, Blair-Holt would require that guns must be locked away and inaccessible to any child under the age of 18. It would empower law enforcement officers to come into your home to inspect whether or not you are in compliance. Failure to comply includes a fine and incarceration of up to five years in prison. In a case of criminal home invasion this law renders the gun owner defenseless.

This proposed law would not only annul the Second Amendment, it will also dissolve the Fourth Amendment that says "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures" shall not be violated without a warrant.

H.R. 45 and other legislation like it are additive steps that are being taken to ultimately render the Second Amendment null and void. But apparently what the bleeding hearts aren't seeing is that if this actually occurs only the law abiding citizens will be hurt by it. Crime will rise and guns will still be around, probably more then ever, but instead of the guns being used to protect US citizens, they will be used to harm them.

If you oppose these efforts, there are a couple of different things that you can do. Contact your representatives and let them know how you feel. You can also make a donation to one of the following organizations that support gun ownership rights and lobby in Washington:

Second Amendment Foundation- http://www.saf.org/

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms- http://www.ccrkba.org/

National Rifle Association- http://home.nra.org/#/home

As Americans it is our constitutional right to bear arms and that right shall not be infringed upon by anyone. Speak up and let your voice be heard on the issues of gun rights. Those in Washington who are pushing for government control of America know that an unarmed man is a subject who is easily controlled but an armed man is a citizen who has an opinion and is not afraid to voice it!

Why Arn't We Listening to This Guy?

On the 30th of August Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal submitted a 66 page report to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. In his report he stated the need for a revised/ updated strategy and more troops in Afghanistan. My question is... what in the hell is taking so long? It has been 23 days and President Obama is just now reviewing his report. This is just silly to me... Obama, who has never served in the military by the way, is reviewing a report submitted by a man with 33 years of military service, and he(Obama) is going to tell him (McChrystal) weather or not he agrees . YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.

General McChrystal has served in Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has received awards such as the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Bronze Star. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and he also attended the Naval War College at Newport. He served as Commander, Joint Special Operations Command and Director, Joint Staff . Needless to say this man knows his shit! Why on God's green earth aren't we listening to him? The men and women in Afghanistan need more resources yet congress is twiddling their
thumbs at the situation. In his report McChrystal stated "Resources will not win this war, but under-resourcing could lose it."

One of the members of congress who is opposing the troop surge is Senator Carl Levin (D-MI). Levin is the chairman for the Committee on Armed Services which I find very ironic seeing as how he also has NEVER served in the military. "General McChrystal is attempting to shift our focus toward adopting a revised strategy that will increase the prospects for success of our efforts in Afghanistan. Focusing on the resource question before we accomplish the strategic shift is a mistake General McChrystal is wisely avoiding," he said. Levin seemed to ignore certain portions of the report that deal with the danger in "under-resourcing" -- but he said that challenge should be addressed by expanding the size of the Afghan army and police.

I have one question for you Mr. Levin, what are you going to do when the Afghan army and police don't receive enough volunteers because of the fear of repercussions from the Al-Qaeda. Even if these organizations do see a good number of volunteers, who do you think will be the ones to train them? The US Military needs to establish a solid presence in Afghanistan so that Afghani men can come forward and volunteer for the army or police forces without fear and it will be the men and women of the US Military that will be responsible for teaching and training these volunteers to be efficient soldiers and policemen.

Men and women of Congress, I urge you to open your eyes and realize that General McChrystal is a wise man, who probably has more military experience then a good portion of the Senate floor put together. He has been there and he has done that. If he says our men and women overseas need help... SEND THEM HELP. Gen. McChrystal has Americas best interests at heart and wants our troops to come home as soon as possible but not before the job is done!

Speak Up, Speak Out

As another week comes to a close I have come to realize that maybe I set my expectations too high for myself. I thought that finding something new and different to write about everyday would be easy... It's not. I am still going to try to post Monday- Friday but if I miss a day or two(like this past Wednesday) please forgive me. Also if you're just browsing through this blog and you like what you read, be sure to follow me and tell your friends.

Misuse: The Race Card

There is nothing that makes me more angry then when people play the the race card when trying to gain the upper hand in a discussion . Playing the race card is a phrase that refers to the act of bringing the issue of race or racism into a debate. In the past few days this phrase has been throw around A LOT and it's pissing me off!

Sen. Joe Wilson has been called a racist because of his outburst at President Obama during his address to congress earlier this month. Calling someone a liar IS NOT RACIST, I don't care if they are white, black, brown, purple or green (now if they were blue, i might have an issue ;) ).

Are They Working for Their Voters or Themselves?

Let's play a game, it's called "Get To Know Your Senator". Under each state I will be posting the names of the respective Senators. Click on the name and you will be directed to site that lists their voting record, stances on issue and even campaign contributions. Is your state senator doing what you voted them there to do? I will also be posting a second link to the senators homepage so you can write him/her and express your concern or praise for the job that they are doing in Washington. Remember America, we voted them into office and our tax money pays their salaries... THEY WORK FOR US!!! If you want to see an end to corruption in Washington it all starts with us. Senators should have their voters interests at heart, not their own bank accounts!