and then the train hit me...
For about 30 hours I sincerely believed I was going to be lucky enough to collect $45,000 of GM's money, pay off 4 credit cards with what I would clear, and retire from there and move on to something new, something less stressful, something that didn't involve 10 hour days or the 31 Saturdays they expect us to work this next year if we go back to 9 hour days...
Border's was looking real good there for a while!
But what I read when I got to work tonight was different than what the janitors gave me to read last night, and I am going to miss the "cut". By about one month...
New header...
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Pardon my soapbox!
I've intended to write this for a while, but had little time to research it thoroughly. A while back I heard a former Navy JAG lawyer say we had executed Japanese officers for waterboarding during the war crimes trials after WW2. I assumed they had waterboarded POW's...I assumed wrong!
It seems that some Aussie's slipped into Singapore's harbor and blew up a bunch of Japanese ships. The Japanese didn't believe that was possible, and decided that the civilian doctors and nurses who had stayed at one of the hospitals during the occupation must have been involved.
So they waterboarded them. Civilians.
They also used electric shock on them.
In the transcript I found of the trial (through Wikipedia, first by searching "waterboarding" and then following a link to the Singapore incident) the Japanese officers say things that sound a lot like what we hear coming from the White House and it's mouthpieces these days...
Somehow I don't think we can justify using any technique for interrogation that we've ever executed someone for! No matter how valuable the information might be! Yet this week Justice Scalia said that interrogation was different than punishment, and that depending on the information obtained could possibly be legal!!!
But let Vermont or California try to clean up greenhouse gasses...
Sorry about the soapbox...
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To all who don't mind, a Very Happy Valentine's Day! In another lifetime picking out a card for each of you would be a treat! But since Dottie doesn't know I blog, mailing them might get me in a bit of trouble, lol!
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Dottie is off on Friday, so I won't be around again until I get up on Saturday.
May the rest of the week be kind and may your weekends be wonderful!
alan
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15 comments:
Who doesn't love a soapbox, Alan? :-D
Have the best Valentine's Day ever, you clandestine blogger you!
Happy Valentine's Day, alan. I appreciate your soapbox, although it breaks my heart. What really bugs me though is the one-month of service that keeps you from your dream retirement. I hope you find a giant loophole to pull your dreams through.
That really does bite the big one, Arrow Smith plays in the background of my mind, you know the one, suck on my big ten inch, they claimed they were referring to a disc, so, so am I, of course.
Companies, damned companies, my sister Becky works in KC too, at what used to be AT&T, but is now another name with at&t as an after thought, anyway, they are laying off 32 people, and if 28 of them take the retirement package then my sister's job is safe, not likely though. Breaks my heart, just like your situation.
I'd love to encounter you at Boarders, or Barnes and Noble, you'd be fantastic referring folks to books, and man wouldn't that be a frappin dream job or what?
Okay, something I've always wondered, how the heck do you keep blogging a secret? I mean you are all over the place man, and loving and caring and, well, one of my favorite blog mens. My grammar suckeths today. It's like a secret addiction, heh, reminds me of my great great aunt Thelma who used to sneak swigs, big old swigs from a hidden whiskey bottle, only everybody knew it, because as the evening progressed she'd get way messed up, and start getting mouthy and ornery. Heh, God love her, I hadn't realized how much I missed her until just now.
Some day I suspect you'll tell Dottie, "Honey, I blog." And she'll say, "Honey, I know." Heh heh.
love ya Alan, mean it,
Lori
it has always struck me as a bit odd, that you keep blogging a secret. but that's just me. secrets scare me.
What a feast of a post - so many things to comment on and what strikes the biggest chord? The one of you blogging in stealth mode from Dottie! I am in stealth mode but a few people in the real world know - and Mr Doris does but since I stopped blogging and then re-started I haven't brought it to his attention much these days. I don't know if he reads my blog these days and that's fine with me. Relatively recently I told my sister about my blog and was so nervous about her reaction .... as if I had been keeping this part of my life from her. But it was OK and more of a big deal for me than her.
As regards the waterboarding - fascinating about the Japanese incident. I am not sure where I stand on the matter but you have a good point about not justifying something that others have been executed for.
May your weekend be wonderful :-)
Doris is right -- so much to comment on, and yet it's the secrecy of your blogging that gets our attention.
Waterboarding -- the very thought makes me shudder.
Retirement is just a very distant dream for me. I hope your retirement comes quickly enough to make you happy.
It was the 'secret blogging' that gave me pause as well. Is there a reason you don't tell Dottie? I know for awhile I didn't tell my husband, just because I know it's not his thing and I thought he wouldn't like it. He does read my blog, but I don't think it affects him one way or the other. I say tell Dottie. You always speak so lovingly of her...that may be nice for her to see.
Happy Valentine's Day, Alan!
i was wondering about you when i heard the news about gm....happy heart day to you.
j.
One month? Wow. That's loaded for you either way it went.
Soapbox: Good soapbox.
Secret blogging? I think it's cool, but boy would Dottie love the things you write about her! But it's sure nice to have one thing or another we keep to ourselves, huh?
I don't blame you for feeling down about the "month" you missed the cut off. It must have been very upsetting. Especially when you thought that you made the cut.
Waterboarding excuses are disgusting. We are no better than our enemies when we participate in these tactics.
I completely understand why you blog secretly. I think you mentioned that Dottie was a very private person. Blogging must help you "deal."
Peace to you this weekend Alan!
You know Alan.. I am so sick of it. I am so sad and weary knowing that we have, as a country lost our integrity. Who can we look to to bring it back?? I wish I knew..it is getting me down. Usually by this time, I have signed up to work for a candidate. but this year?
I wanted to like Hilary more than I do.. I wanted a woman to be the best. But I do not like her negative ads. Obama? Is he too good to be true asks jaded me? Or is he the answer to our pleas for a deacent candidate?
I mourn the loss of Edwards..
I fear the next election..
bah!
Yellowdoggrannie has a pic of McCain hugging Bush on her blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
blech!
You soapbox made me once again wonder, what has happened to common sense? Do these people hear the words coming out of their mouths and really believe them? Disgusting and scary at the same time.
For the record, my hubby doesn't know either. It's something I do for me. Only rqm and his sister know in my family.
Happy Valentines... belated. xoxo
How sad to miss the cutoff.
My youngest son works for Coca Cola and hates his job.
It's the crazy hours they make them work
He keeps hoping he'll win the lottery
so he can tell them to
kiss off!
I'm glad you got on your soap box...it is a message we all have to listen too..My candidate was Edwards
and I am hoping which ever Dem wins that they will consider him for Attorney General, that would be the end of torture that really doesn't get any truth out of anyone.
I fear four more years of Republicans, so I will swallow my pride and support which ever candidate is on the ballot.
We need some Supreme Court Justices
that will protect our rights in this country.
John McCain may be a good guy, but he will be surrounded by the same old Bush crowd.
Hope you had a great Valentine's, Allen. Sorry you got some bad news :(
When I heard about GM's plans to replace the current workforce with one being paid half of what the current workers got I was stunned that the union would allow a two-tiered wage system. I think it's going to bring great tension to the line.
I first heard the word waterboarding while in the car listening to NPR the other day. Of course because I was in then out of the car I didn't catch what waterboarding actually was. I thought they were talking about some newfangled sport. Then when I got back in the car and listened to the rest of the story and realized what waterboarding meant, I was horrified. It seems to me that the US is no longer the country I once knew - I hardly recognize it anymore.
I can understand why you don't share your blogging with Dottie. I understand the desire to have something that is entirely your own. However, should she discover your "secret", from how you describe the person she is, I don't think she'd disapprove and she's probably understand too.
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