US needs to keep up with mental health status of troops on case by case bases

The US military needs to do a better job of evaluating and caring for mental health among our troops. When a soldier enlists, they are promised adventures life, full of travel, and benefits for them and their family. Recruiters generally leave out the ever present possibility you going absolutely nuts after all the atrocities you witness. We need to closely monitor  troops mental health, not only because they deserve a healthy mind, but for the safety of their fellow soldiers, and the people they're defending. Soldiers have a long history of mental health problems such as ptsd, depression, anxiety, and alcoholism. Many homeless people are in fact veterans, and if the system  gave them the attention they deserved, maybe fitting into society after intense combat might help them live easier. Humans are known to react violently after watching friends die, or seeing a child catch a bullet. Ptsd can through someone into a terrifying and violent hallucination. It is our responsibility to make sure they're mentally fit to hold a weapon. The most recent insident of a soldier going AWOL is of Army Staff SGT Robert Bales, a decorated war veteran who shot and killed 17 Afgans, nine of which  were children. Bales had been in legal trouble for his anger before, and had suffered a serious head injury recently. In days previous one of his buddy's also lost their lives. I'm convinced that if we kept better track of his mental health record, maybe we could have saved the lives of those people, and also his as he could face the death penalty. None of this is new, last year Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan killed 13, and injured 32 people when he opened fire in Fort. Hood. This is serious stuff, we need to start taking better care of the people who take care of us. This isn't Bales fault, it's ours, and after the Taliban gets revenge, believe me more than 17 people will lose their lives.

Blog on Fox editorial concerning Joseph Kony and the LRA

Today on Fox news.com Joe Brettel wrote an editorial titled "Calling all GOP Candidates--a conservative explains why you should care about Uganda. In this article Brettel explained that our involvement in Uganda is a moral obligation. Brettel  went on to talk about Kony2012, the video that went viral over Youtube, that aims to make Konys war crimes known to the majority. Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lords Resistance Army, a radical Christian terrorist group who's original goal was to protect the Christian population from violent radical Muslim groups. The group is no longer working towards a goal, but fights simply to stay in power. This group is infamous for mutilating victims, selling young captives into the sex trade, and most of all forcing children to become soldiers and commit terrible acts against humanity. I agree with Joe Brettel that the LRA must be stopped, as no torture and war crimes of this magnitude should go unpunished, however I think we should be careful to not mislabel the reasons we enter a conflict. The last sentence that Brettel writes in the editorial says something along the lines of,"  Uganda's children as well as America's children will benefit from the arrest of Joseph Kony." That statement is only half true if you ask me. Aiding Uganda in the capture of Kony will have absolutely no effect on children in the US whatsoever. Hell, most Americans hadn't ever heard of the matter untill a week ago. So if we'r going to lend a hand, lets be honest about why. Before I watched the video I never would have supported Americans entering another conflict. I now believe we are obligated to intervene, theirs never a reason to allow a genocide to occur. I do think that we should limit the amount of troops on the ground in Uganda to a minimum, and remember that child soldiers are common in third world countries. It's even fairly common practice with paramilitary groups as close as Mexico and all over South America. We can't police the entire universe, and sometimes it does feel like they're trying to,  but on the other hand, for once we'd be fighting a war for a reason other than money. I hate the idea of spending U.S tax dollars outside the U.S as much as the next man, but can we really sit back and watch a holocaust?http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/11/11/why-gop-candidates-should-care-about-uganda-conservative-case/         




3/30/2012-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I feel like an idiot now, screw politics I'm grabbing a beer

Keystone pipeline edditorial

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-pipeline-20120119,0,3017097.story
 Evaluate the author’s intended audience, the author’s credibility, and their argument (including their claim, evidence, and logic
I think the author was trying to reach Americans scared about the job crisis. The job crisis is very real, and it affects Americans of all parties, one thing I know about growing up and working in South Texas is that oil brings jobs. I'm  all about alternative resources, but their just not an option yet, most likely because someone wants it that way. Oil is a staple that we need, and environmentalists have taken this one to the extreme. If the keystone pipeline never opens up, the oil will most likely end up here anyway. Barge ships will bring it to refineries because we're the only ones who have the equipment to process it. Has no one ever seen the ships go through the channel at port A????? they're not loaded down with bio-diesel let me tell you, we import 200million barrels of crude oil every single year from Canada anyway. I find it insane that china can pump oil right off the coast of Florida, but we refrain because of environmental issues. We literally buy oil from other countries that was pumped 50 miles off OUR Coast. STUPIDITY is what its called. Sixty percent of our oil is imported, many Americans KNOW it should be zero.  We would rather pay top dollar to oppressive and violent dictatorships the world over, and put our water ways in danger during importation , than prosper and fix our unemployment problems.  The U.S should focus on making pipe-lines safe so we can be self-reliant. Many people make it sound like these pipelines are not monitored, however they can detect a break in the pipe the second it happens. Also, these pipelines are encased more than once, to minimize damage. Thats more than you can do for a sinking vessel. Go to the beach, that black stuff seeping through the sand is the direct result of ships capsizing, and oil spills into Corpus-Christi bay. I believe we need those jobs right now. People don't understand that it's much more dangerous to import oil than it is drill for it ourselves, economically and environmentally. Kids in Hub-city's don't go to college for a good reason, they can make 70 thousand a year right out of freaking high school at the rigs. Try finding a stable job in South Austin right now, it's just not happening. Oil city's may not be beautiful, but even the village idiot makes ten buck an hour.  I'm not saying that we shouldn't focus on alternative resources, I'm saying we shouldn't be wasting money and giving jobs away, especially 250,000 of them. Bio-diesel isn't even a real option at the moment as WE HAVE TO IMPORT THE ONLY REAL RESOURCE(hemp) FROM CANADA, as they've put restriction on that to. We need to quit being so stubborn.

I believe that an electronic  direct democracy has potential to work , but i have a problem trusting machines. Mostly because their is always someone who can wire them to do whatever they want. I like the idea of having a say  on every issue, but I can't see it being possible  without some sort of electronic system. It sounds convenient for people who already spend time voting and taking part in government, and my problem with it isn't that I feel like one group would take suppress another, I actually think it would do the opposite, but not by much. Even if people could click a survey like window, and vote on bills, I still believe people would click out of them like a sears or target pop-up add unless they'd in the first place. I don't even think that its a big enough issue to even considering tackling, while some of our other issues still exist. I do think that this change is inevitable, but it should be done very carefully and slowly.