Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged

This blog is on a personal subject. I'm tired of people who think they have the right to judge; but, no one has the right to judge them.

Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone mis-speaks and says things they didn't mean to say; something that just comes out wrong. No one person in this world is perfect, I don't care what your school, your religion, your family, tells you--No one is perfect!

When the Bible says to honor your mother and your father--that's what it means. Even if your parents are divorced or separated, you should honor both of your parents equally.

The individuals involved in my personal matter know who they are and they know of what I am writing. We have taken care of you and supported you throughout your young life into adulthood. We have listened to your late night phone calls of your dreams and your tribulations. We have financially supported you in good times and in bad. You are welcome in our lives and our home at any time, for any reason.

But, you need to learn that you are not perfect and neither are we. Things are said for many reasons and if you are to survive in the world, as it is today, you'd better grow a tough skin. Just because someone says something that you didn't like for some reason, you do not have the right to judge them because you are so darn great. Because you aren't. Let me make a list of the things you have said or done wrong in your short lifetime and throw it in your face as a reason to dislike you and disrepect you.

Grow up and live the doctrine you profess to believe. Judge not lest ye be judged. Honor thy father and they mother so that you may live long and be happy on this earth.

What's the Difference Folks?

ISIS--an organization that calls itself the new Islamic state; wants to be the modern caliphate in the Middle East; murdering, raping, stealing, plundering it's own people and anyone else that gets in its way.

The Taliban--an organization that calls itself the new Muslim state; wants to be the Islamic caliphate in the entire world; murders, rapes, steals, plunders it's own people and anyone else that gets in their way.

What's the difference folks?

Really not much. They are both radical Muslim groups who want to take over as much area as possible by means of terror. To the extend that they do not care who they terrorize, as long as they get their own way. They both declare they are Muslims trying to make a better world thru the so called peaceful teachings of Mohammad. Well folks, Mohammad was not a peaceful person and neither are any of them.

Both organizations have made tapes and televised beheadings of individuals from different countries who have no connection to the ideology spread by terrorist affiliates; journalists, aid workers, various military members, and even members of religious help organizations. European nations have paid large sums of money to keep their citizens from meeting the fates that recent Americans and British citizens have met. And, yet most countries becry the fact that they do not negotiate with terrorists.

American citizens watch these televised recordings of American in horror and join the national outcry that our government does nothing to stop it. And, some Americans are asking the same questions that I ask. If the Taliban and now ISIS hate Americans, call us names, and behead us, why do they brag of the Americans and British citizens who have joined them in terror? I can't understand why Americans and British would want to join them; but, how do our citizens convince these organizations that they genuinely want to join in their causes and not be taken as spies trying only to infiltrate and destroy the Taliban and ISIS?  Do these individuals just walk into the den of iniquity and say hi I'm here to help you out. I've been told that individuals are recruited online line by various other crazy individuals; but, you can't believe things that are posted online and I just can't see volunteering Americans filling out applications online. I'm baffled, truly baffled; or perhaps I am the nieve one.

Today, as I set reading news articles and trying to catch up on the current events, I ran across the article about Mrs. Foley's embarrassment and anger that the American government didn't do more to free her son. I remembered the article in early September about President Obama trading five Guantanamo detainees for Army Sergeant Bowe Berghdahl. And, I wonder, why would our government trade terrorist for a military member who according to his follow soldiers, left his post to join the enemy; but, it refused to do anything to free a journalist who was just doing his job. The whole time cajoling that our government doesn't negotiate with terrorists.

What is the difference folks? Someone out there please enlighten me because I do not see the difference. Isn't it better to save one sinner than to walk with the righteous forever? Set terrorists free that will one day return to kill more Americans, but set back and let terrorists behead innocent citizens and not lift a finger to stop them? What is the difference folks, cause I sure and heck don't get it.

A caution about Sofas and Sectionals.com

Five month's ago, my husband and I decided to replace our living room furniture. When our dogs were puppies, they had chewed on the corners of the sofa and loveseat, so we decided we'd like to replace them. My husband found Sofas and Sectionals.com online offering the Lane brand of furnture in the color we wanted with the power features we were looking for.

He placed the order and was told we'd receive the furniture in four to six weeks. After six weeks rolled around and we hadn't heard any thing, my husband called to inquire. The salesman told him that Lane no longer made the furniture we wanted in the color we ordered. The salesman offered an alternative color and stated that he would take a large amount off the sales price for our troubles. Again we placed an order for the same furniture in an alternative color.

Again we were promised deliver in four weeks. Again the four weeks passed without any furniture deliver. My husband caled the salesperson and was told they were running a little behind, but the furniture would be delivered soon. Meanwhile Sofas and Sectionals.com was billing our American Express for various sums of money to cover the manufacturing. Finally I was becoming irritated at the amount of time and money we were putting into getting this furniture with no results.

I ask my husband to checking into when this furniture was arriving and this time he contacted the customer service representative, Ms. Shara Williams. Ms. Williams said the salesman hadn't promised us a lower price and wanted more money to get this furniture to us. Since my husband really wanted the Lane, power reclining feature and we couldn't find the color and features we wanted locally, we agreed to the price and Ms. Williams promised quick delivery.

Time went by and no furniture, no word from Sofas and Sectionals.com, and we were getting really unhappy over the whole deal. Then we get word that the furnture was in Albuquerque and when could it be delivered. My husband set up a delivery date, but called and ask them to hold the furniture because neither of us could be home for delivery. They delivered the recliners anyway, the sofa was torn badly and they were going to reorder it.

Now we get a look at the two recliners and they are the wrong color and do not have the power feature we paid for, so, we have them picked up and returned. We'd had enough, so we ask for a refund, to heck with it. Ms. Williams said she needed pictures of the furniture because now it was a warranty problem. Picture of what, we didn't accept the furniture and it's on its way back to wherever it came from.

Several e-mails and phone calls later Ms. Williams tells us she misunderstood and thought we had the furniture. Now she says she's going to process our refund immediately. Well, I guess to her immediately means "wait a few months and they'll forget about it, and we won't refund their money." Finally it's 5 months since this started and I've had enough, so I tell my husband to stopped messing with Sofas and Sectionals.com because it's obvious to me that they are not going to refund our money. We contested the charge with our American Express company and wouldn't ya know it, Ms. Williams sends us an e-mail wanting to argue about when certain events happened and she doesn't like that we told the truth to American Express complete with e-mails and receipts. Now she can't get us our refund fast enough.

Yes, we have all our money back and we never intend to purchase anything that expensive online again. However, if Sofas and Sectionals.com had been open and honest from the beginning they would be looking like the liars and cheats that they really are and I wouldn't be writing this post.  Beware of online thieves.

Ebola

I've been ask by several people if I'm going to post on Ebola. Well, I do not have any more medical knowledge about Ebola than the general public; but, when I was in high school, I worked as a Candy Stripper in my hometown hospital. Back in the 60s hospital were the most sanitized place people could go. Hospital floors were shiny, clean, and constantly washed down with chemical solutions to kill the germs. The last time I was in the local Albuquerque hospital the place was filthy. I was there for several days and saw a cleaning person only once and she didn't do much to clean the place.

So, if you can catch Ebola from coming into contact with someone who has it, or their bodily fluids anyway, I'd say bringing to our country, into our filthy hospitals, it's going to be passed around eventually.

My problem with this disease is that while it was an African only problem, the rest of the world didn't much care. Or, spend any time trying to eradicate it. Now that Americans have caught the disease, we are working our butts off to cure these folks and to find a vaccine. What is going to happen now that the medicine to treat it has been used up and the time period to make more is quite awhile? And, what about the fact that bacteria and viruses evolve quickly? What if it mutates and the means of infection is altered? Here we set with a possible pandemic and no medicine left to treat it.

My personal opinion--we should have left the infected individuals where they were and treated them there.

War! Ugh, Good God, What is it Good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again.

I've written on this subject many times, but I don't think people understand the concept, so I'm writing about it again.

War has been around since humans have walked this earth, but it has really evolved. Originally, man fought wars because they wanted something somone else had. Declare war, take what they wanted, kill everyone or take them as slaves, take over the property owned by others, war was actually quite simple in the beginning.

As the human race evolved, wars evolved and were mostly fought to conquer countries and add them to land areas, such as the Holy Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, the Turkish Empire, etc.   Some wars were fought by great warriors, the Vikings fought long and hard to make and maintain their warrior reputations. And, wars were fought between members of royal families to ensure their paths to the throne. Wars were violent! Villages were destroyed. innocent people (Men, women, and children) were killed; no one was spared.

Now war has become a victim of technology. America sends in it's troops and we try to be nice. Try not to hurt anyone who's not considered a military target. Problem is, in these countries, who is the military participant and who are innocents is not easy to figure out. Do they have a T-shirt with enemy--innocent printed on the front? Does the enemy have a different appearance than the innocent bystander? No, we really can't tell one from the other. So what happens now when innocent men, women, and children become a victim of war? We prosecute the military member, the one who is on the ground, under fire, and can't tell the difference between the innocent and the enemy. How much bull is that people, you trying fighting the WAR and see if you can stay out of prison.

The big war is coming--look around you. Can you tell the members of the ISIS sleeper cells in America from the American citizens? Good luck. Are you prepared to fight the religious war against people who are dying to be your friend one minute and the next they will cut off your head in front of the cameras? Americans have become soft, unwilling to fight for what they believe in, and it's going to be the downfall of this nation. You had better wake up and look in the mirror. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to save yourself, your family, your country? Because these radicals are willing and with the millions other nations pay to get hostages returned, they have the military machinery to run over millions of people, Americans will be included.

Our government may tell us ISIS is in the middle east and they can keep them there. But, the truth is that these radicals live among us now, just waiting for the right moment to strike. And, we are not prepared, nor will we be prepared with our present ideology. Wake up Americans, because they are coming and they are bringing hell with them.

Missile, missile, who fired the missile?

A Malaysian passenger jet is believed to have been shot down with a Russian missile over Ukraine. As many as 300 innocent passengers, from various countries including the United States, were killed. The finger pointing started immediately, did you do it? No I didn't do it, he did. Ukraine's president has stated the they didn't have the equipment or the knowledge to do it. (If I were the president of Ukraine, I wouldn't be saying that on TV.) The pro-Russian separatists said they have the equipment and the knowledge, but they didn't do it. Putin has stated in news conferences that Russia, and especially him personally, didn't do it.

CNN has shown pictures of the pro-Russian separatists walking through the airliner's debris field, dead passenger's bodies there for exhibit, laughing and talking about the crash. These separatists refuse to let investigators enter the crash site and they refuse to let family in also. Yesterday, CNN showed pictures of these same separatists placing some bodies in body bags, loading them on trucks, and refusing to divulge where they were taking them. In some pictures, dead bodies were shown still strapped in their assigned seats. These separatists were shown bemoaning the fact that the field smelled bad, due to dead bodies, and they had to wear masks to keep from getting sick. Well get the heck out of there and let trained professionals take care of the dead.

I think it's pretty obvious who downed this passenger plane. The Russians gave the separatists the missile systems and obviously taught them how to use them or there are Russian personnel in country helping them use the equipment. Either way, and it may have been a mistake, the plane is blown out of the sky, innocent people die, and the separatists are laughing about it, refusing to let investigators find out who did it, and messing with dead bodies instead of letting them be processed and given to the families for burial. Is there anything here that anyone does not understand?

I think it's time for our government and all of the decent countries of the world to take a stand. This nonsense needs to be dealt with on a forceful side. There are United Nation's troops and European Union troops that can handle this, that's why these organizations were founded. Since Putin disavows any knowledge or connection to this incident, he shouldn't mind that these two organizations clean it up. A missile for a missile? Or, are we waiting for this same thing, or something worse, to take place before anyone does something?

Or, maybe, when it clucks like a chicken, it really is a chicken! Don't shoot missiles, throw chicken feed.

The Department of Veterans' Affairs

The scandal at the Department of Veterans' Affairs is much bigger than it's medical problems. I once worked at the Department of Veterans' Affairs, May 2000 thru August 2001. I worked in the Director's office in the division handling disability claims.  The Department of Veterans' Affairs handles many veterans' benefits: home loans, GI Bill education benefits, disability claims, medical care, and probably more that I'm not aware of.

I use the VA hospital on occasion and I never had a problem with them. Then the scandal hit the news and things in the Albuquerque VA hospital kind of got strange. I called to make my annual mammogram appointment and the volunteer on the phone told me they would have to take my name and phone number so they could call me back, "because they were making an appointment for a veteran." Never got that line before, and didn't get a call back either. I waited two days and called again. This time a woman who told me she was the supervisor of the person who made the appointments said, "I don't know how to make the appointments, but if you give me your name and phone number, I will make sure the appointment maker calls you back." OK, how do you supervisor someone if you do not know how they do their job? Oh well, the next day another woman called me back and said she was the technician who performed the mammograms, and proceeded to tell me how overworked she was, but she did make me an appointment. Guess they were having more problems than I was aware of.

And, I sympathize with them, since I work for the government and we are now understaffed and underpaid. But, back in May 2000, when I worked in the Director's office, I didn't sympathize with the VA. I'm not going to name names here; but, the man who was in charge of the office where the disability claims were adjudicated, and believe me this was a big man must have weighed a good 300 pounds, was constantly bragged about how he was in the Army and worked in undercover operations in Vietnam.  (Bet he didn't weigh that much then.) He found great joy in turning down veteran claims for disability submitted by veterans who were involved in undercover or classified missions, had suffered injuries, but didn't have documentation to prove it.

One man had tried numerous time to get disability benefits because he had thrown himself on a live grenada to save his platoon. He finally sent a claim to the director with pictures of the skin graphs all over his body. The adjudicators still wouldn't give him benefits because when you work undercover or on classified missions, the military doesn't document that, or any injuries received, in your military or medical records. If you're real smart you go to a private doctor and have every injury documented.

Instead of helping veterans the employees in our department were too busy evesdropping on each other and starting interdepartmental rumors and problems. My job was going along fine and then one day the director stopped talking to me and avoiding me. Finally one day I had to give her some information and inform her I had to change my hours if possible because my husband and I were meeting with a marriage counselor to work out some personal problems. Once inside her office, she informed me that another employee had come to her with a conversation that was overheard, that I had been passing on some personal information about the director to a third party. She wanted to know why I was taling about her behind her back.

The coversation that was "overheard"concerned my personal problem, didn't have anything to do with the director. So, I told the director that when people are eavesdropping they usually don't get the entire story, so she could believe what she wanted, I would be looking for a better place to work.
Thus the short employment at the VA. I wouldn't work there again for anything.

Eric Shinseki had his hands full running the VA. No one person can be an expert in all of the benefits administered by that Department. He really needs to have people to head each division of the VA that are experts in that field: home loans, GI Bill for education, disability benefits, and medical. I think he got the shaft, as a lot of department heads do. He was a military general, they have colonels under them who are the experts. Mr. Shinseki gets run out of a job because the employees in the battlefields (so to speak) can't do their jobs properly or honestly. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, folks, and it ain't getting any better.