Touched A Nerve – Pun Intended.

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Seems my primer on chemical weaponry this week provoked a larger than usual response. The comments were all deleted before being published as I didn’t feel like responding individually.

That’s why I pay the rent here – I get to control the comments. They ranged from one rant that appeared to be narcotics fueled (seriously, it was like reading directly from the journal of somebody on heroin) to another that questioned my ability to write about orphans in Haiti if I wasn’t going to go to war over children in Syria.

The ones in between were not so bad. But I elected to use this forum to clear up a few things.

First, it’s a good idea to read a whole blog post before commenting. The comments this week indicated a lack of reading for comprehension. I didn’t say children aren’t valuable. I did not advocate genocide. I did not… the list goes on.

What I should have pointed out is that with over 100,000 dead in that civil war in the last five years it’s rather silly to rush into a military entanglement just because somebody used chemical weapons. Remember, chemical weapons have been around since at least 900 B.C. Not exactly an orbit shaking event that somebody used them. After all, nobody seemed too upset when Saddam used them on the Kurds, the Syrians used them on – you get the point. Heck, even Italy used them on Ethiopia. But I digress. Artillery and truck bombs don’t count? Rifle fire and grenades are moot? As Greg Gutfeld pointed out, machetes don’t count? As the post pointed out, anyone could have used chemical weapons in this spot and it’s least likely of all that Assad was the culprit. He may be a lousy eye doctor, but I don’t think he’s stupid.

I will throw this out there: If Barack Obama can give me a tersely worded five sentence explanation of what we would accomplish with limited air strikes in this mess I might change my mind. But the nebulous nonsense out of Washington is too much. There is no real gain here, only loss.

For those of you in the comments who were advocating our involvement I have a question? Have any of you ever done contingency planning for air strikes? Have any of you studied chemical weapons? Have any of you trained to use chemical weapons? Have any of you sat for hours wearing a gas mask with your clothing all buttoned up to avoid contamination? Have any of you “Set Circle William” and shut off all the air to your compartment to avoid nerve gas?

Yeah, thought not. I have. All of the above. And the one really nasty thing about the kind of strikes that President Obama (Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize) is proposing is that the poor schmucks downwind will die. Chemical weapons tend to linger in the air for a ways. Syria has had plenty of warning to move these in close to the cities. Strike a chemical depot and kill all the civilians for a few miles downwind.

Doesn’t sound so great anymore does it?

That’s the point, Ladies and Gentlemen. If you really give this some thought either we’re backing Iran or we’re backing Al Qaeda. Not much of a choice. Stay out.

Here’s An Idea To Save Lots Of Taxpayer Money.

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How about if we settle two of the biggest military news items of the past week with one solution?

My proposal is that we set up a little obstacle course on a large flat area under control of the military and test some new hardware. Take an area 1 mile in radius and put Bradley Manning and Nidal Hassan at the center. If little Bradley manages to push Nidal’s wheelchair all the way to the outside of that 1 mile mark he gets his sex change operation while he’s in prison and can spend his days as Chelsea – still in a federal military prison. Nidal gets to take a hand grenade and blow himself up so that he can be shaheed (*martyr*) and claim his virgins.

The obstacle part of this is that it will be a sandy area so wheelchairs don’t roll so well. And the Army (since it’s their two idiots) gets to see how their micro-drones do when weaponized. They get 60 drones to use during the test (I like the idea of numbers working out, 60×6=360, 360 degrees in a circle, etc.). I’ve heard the Israelis do a fabulous job with these things blowing up gaggles of morons on their borders, but I don’t believe our military has yet employed them. Seems this would be a really good way to test them out.

Everyone wins.

Do you have any clever ideas on how to deal with these two swine? If so, send them to the Army where they will no doubt be looked at in 10 years or so. On the other hand, just say something in an email about using drones to blow up people and I’m sure the NSA will forward the info to the Army right away.

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Syria Update. How We Shouldn’t Spend Our Blood And Treasure.

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Let’s talk about chemical weaponry. It’s prominently in the news today with all that’s going on in Syria and some of our esteemed leadership is itching to get involved in the fray.

Some chemical weapons are blistering agents. These, like mustard gas, irritate the skin and burn the lungs. When you irritate the lungs they fill up with fluid and you drown. Not a pretty way to go, but there it is. The big ugly blisters on exposed skin are kind of a downer as well. All that pain and mess require medical attention and use up your resources quickly. It ties down people to take care of the sick, blind, coughing wretch that survives the attack.

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Some chemical agents are psycho active. They make you lethargic or insane. You might not care if anyone is coming at you, or you might turn on the guy next to you in a murderous rage. Then again you might just go to sleep depending on the kind of agent used. Paralytic agents are similar except that you are basically under an anesthetic when exposed. Can’t do much even if your brain keeps working.

Then there are nerve agents. Forget what you saw in “The Rock” back in high-school. Nerve agents don’t make you convulse so violently that your back breaks. Nerve agents make it very hard to breathe most of all. They are essentially insecticide modified to kill people. The process is somewhat irrelevant but it amounts to the chemicals breaking the molecular bonds that help in transmitting nerve signals. Once those are gone, your muscles don’t work as they should. If you know you’ve been exposed you can treat yourself with an atropine injector. No injector? Oops, horrible death if untreated.

All chemical weapons are easy to make in industrialized countries. They’ve been around for millennia and that’s not going to change. Nerve gas has been around since WWII. It takes a couple of really good chemical engineers and a petrochemical plant to turn the stuff out. The more you work at it the safer it is going to be.

Chemical weapons are mainly a terror/nuisance weapon. They don’t kill very effectively but they scare the life out of the uninformed. Limited in how they can be delivered, hard to handle, expensive to manufacture, and poor shelf life are just a few of the problems you face in having them in your arsenal. The United States is still working on getting rid of all the junk we made up until the early 1970’s. It’s tough to dispose of in a safe manner. (Unless you’re Saddam Hussein and you just load it on trucks and send it across the border to a friendly Arab nation.)

So, what makes us think that we’ll “fix” the situation in Syria by getting involved? I’m guessing that most people don’t understand how easy it is to make the stuff. Anyone remember the Japanese Cult (Aum Shinrikyo) that used nerve gas in the Tokyo Subway? Yes, they did that in a handy little lab they built. No big industrial complex, nothing to bomb. The same kind of crew that can turn out industrial methamphetamine can turn out nerve gas.

I mention that because it’s my suspicion that the “rebels” in Syria are gassing their own people. It pays to remember that these guys are a branch of Al Qaeda and they place a rather low value on the life of the locals. Most of the people who died in recent chemical attacks (if they were chemical) don’t belong to the rebel cause. They’re just a bunch of civilians who were handy when corpses were suddenly in demand. Gas a bunch of people, point at the government of Bashar Al Assad and demand international help to fight such evil. It’s a setup. Period.

And what if it’s not? What if the government of Syria just gassed 1000 of its subjects? I’m truly curious how that requires our intervention. We’ve managed, under several recent administrations to ignore genocide in lots of places. This is no different. The Syrians are a long way from being a threat to us in a strategic sense. Israel seems to be ready to handle most of the larger weapons systems. The Turkish government is a next door neighbor with an interest in the local neighborhood. How about they take care of things on their own border? After all, they have an interest in dealing with the refugee surge.

The point is simple: keep out. We gain nothing by intervening. The analogy here is about a knife fight on the next block. Both of the participants are known dirt bags who have terrorized their neighbors. Why would you walk down the block and get involved, possibly getting cut in the process, when you can wait for one or the other to fall dead and then deal with the bloodied survivor.

Cold hearted? Yes. Sometimes that’s the only way to deal with situations like this one. I’ll pray for the Christians in Syria, because they’re likely to be exterminated if the rebels win. I’ll pray for peace in the Middle East while I’m at it today. But the odds of peace in the Middle East are right up there with the Vikings, Timberwolves, Twins, Lynx, and Wild all winning the championship in the same calendar year. It might happen, but it’s far more likely that I’ll be voted in as Miss America. Look at the picture on the right side of this blog and figure the odds.

Stay out of Syria. It’s a bad place to be if you’re an American.

Remember Courtemanche’s Theorem: If Barack Obama, John McCain, and Lindsay Graham all like an idea, it’s horrible.

Sponsorship Sunday – Week Sixteen – Edens

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Week Sixteen is upon us. As always, I appreciate your taking the time to read about this week’s child and giving thought to financially supporting them. The response has been wonderful, and I love you all for taking care of these children.

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This week’s child is: Edens

Edens

Edens is a tender-hearted boy, often helping the younger children shower and clean up after a fun day playing. Edens wants to be an engineer some day so he pays special attention in math class. When he’s not studying, Edens likes to play basketball and soccer. Edens has a favorite song called Mighty to Save. Edens‘ prayer request is that he will grow up to be a good man.

Edens came to Healing Haiti in July, 2008. Edens and his siblings, Bradley and Blondine, were abandoned by their parents.

Birth Info
Birthdate: July 10, 1996
Place of Birth: Tabarre, Haiti

It is my hope that one of you will find your heart touched by this child and take up a bit of Christ’s work by sponsoring them for an extended period. My wife and I are sponsoring a pair of sisters and we took on the commitment based on having to only gave up a fast-food dinner each day to change the life of a child. God came through with a very lucrative bit of voice over work for me that covered the bill that same day, but it really is as easy as skipping a value meal. Healing Haiti will do the right things for these children and I have full confidence in their work. I am not affiliated with them, they don’t endorse this blog, nothing like that at all. I just love kids (can’t be Santa and not love children) and know that Grace Village is the difference between life and death for many of these children. Please open your heart and prayerfully reflect on the opportunity God’s giving us to sponsor these children. Some of them have come out of slavery and have some of the toughest lives you could imagine prior to Grace Village.

Just click the link and it will take you directly to the page where you can sponsor this week’s child. And if God is particularly good and that child is sponsored when you get there, please grab another smiling face and change their life instead. My goal is to put Sponsorship Sunday out of business as quickly as possible and take that day off each week. Thank you. God bless you for your generosity.

Some of the finest people you’ll ever meet. The hands and feet of Christ.

Friday. A Spontaneous Dog Post.

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Yesterday morning I got home and did the usual dog stuff. Once I’d opened the back door Stormy went about her business and got in a mite of barking. Normal morning around here, pretty much like every other morning since the late 1999 period – me and at least one Sheltie on the back steps greeting the day.

Sitting on the steps (who needs patio furniture when you’ve got a stoop?) was always a peaceful time with Edzell. He’d sit next to me or stand there at my side. Maisie did it as well, but I think of it as an Edzell thing to do. Stormy hasn’t been that into sitting there with my arm around her as the day begins. She’s not the “snuggly” type, and prefers to be patrolling the yard.

Stormy assumes the Mantle

But Thursday was an exception. She came back up the steps and sat right next to me. I put my arm around her and she didn’t run. I smiled about all the great mornings I’ve had out there with my dogs and thanked God for her taking up the duty. And then the overwhelming sadness of loss slammed into me like an enraged Sumo. I missed Ed and Maisie so deeply that it physically hurt. I’d spent thousands of mornings out on that step with them greeting what would be another day of love and friendship. And my two buddies were both dead and gone. I’ve got tears in my eyes writing this now.

Laura Story has a song about what I experienced yesterday. I’ll put the video down below. The song is called Blessings. The point of the song is that sometimes your blessings come in disguise. Yesterday’s blessing was the realization that the most perfect material to absorb tears of loss and grief is the fur at the back of a dog’s neck. I burrowed my face into Stormy and gently wept for my two friends.

I still miss them. I will always miss them. But after a moment or two, when Stormy was still there and not trying to run away, I had found my blessing that came through tears. We just have to look a bit harder for those blessings.

What blessings have you missed by not looking past the tears?

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