Sunday, December 12, 2004

We're fighting a war with spit wads

and our government won't provide spit.


Bulletproof vests Iraq-bound

Mims mother collects nearly 500 [bulletproof vests] to help protect Marine son's unit

BY TOM BREEN
FLORIDA TODAY


Joanne Homer would do anything for her son, the Marine.

Joanne Homer of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department hands Susan Johnson some bulletproof vests. Central Florida law enforcement agencies donated the vests to Homer’s son, Marine Sgt. Jessie Holton and his fellow Marines, who will be deployed to Iraq in January. Image by Rik Jesse, FLORIDA TODAY
And the Mims mom is doing it now -- trying to keep him from harm by helping gather nearly 500 bulletproof vests for the troops in his unit to use to protect the Humvees they'll ride through the war zone in Iraq.

Similar concerns about a lack of armored protection for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are growing.

On Wednesday, a Tennessee National Guard soldier in Kuwait asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld why "we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor vehicles."


More at Florida Today


Saturday, December 04, 2004

It's just Business

"It's nothing personal." "It's just business." Usually said in response to an action which were it done by an individual would be at the least frowned upon or at the most criminal.

Business has no morals, no ethics, no reponsibility to society or the planet. It's just business. It's role is to make a profit.

If that means another business has to be shut down, so be it. If that means employees are paid slave wages, so be it. If that means employees have to access health care through state welfare agencies supplemented by U.S. taxpayers, so be it. If that means parts of the planet are destroyed, so be it. It's just business.

If banks are closed and people lose their retirement and life-time savings, so be it. If a business files bankruptcy causing its employees to lose their retirement and life-time savings, so be it. If a business wants to sell a product which harms or kills people, so be it. It's just business. It's nothing personal.

If businesses want to destroy culture or economies, so be it. It's just business. And while we're at it, let's give them a tax break for destroying cultures, economies, individual's lives and health, for creating working poor and costing U.S. taxpayers billions in tax money. It's just business. It's nothing personal.

Wal-Mart vs. the Pyramids

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

World Aids Day - December 1, 2004



World Aids Day - December 1, 2004