Nightwish - Bye Bye Beautiful

I've talked about Nightwish. Here's a video.

The War takes another life

I have found out that I may lose friend of mine. He was another casualty of the War in Iraq. He was in Iraq in 2004 when the war began. During his tour of duty, he lost his entire truck crew. Only he survived. On his return home, he fell into drugs and alcohol. Six years later, the death took another hero of the war. After an argument with his wife, he went into the yard and hanged himself. The last I heard he was on total life support.

My friend, the war hero, who took all of life that he could.

Deadly Cell Phones

Pay-As-You-Go and used cell phones are a small part of the terrorists kit. Pay-As-You-Go phones, you've seen them at Wal-mart, can be bought and do not require little if any information to activate. Once activated, they can be 'charged' with minutes. Both the phones and minutes can be purchased using cash making them virtually untraceable. The July 2005 terrorist attacks in London were planned using such phones.

Used phones are also a good item to have in a terrorist kit. They are cheap and easy to get. Many are bought on eBay, sent overseas and used in other countries to plot and execute terrorist attacks. GSM phones, like those on AT&T's network, are particularly of interest because the majority of the world cell phone companies use the GSM technology. Verizon phones with SIMM cards can be used worldwide as well.

Cellphones are a vital tool for terrorists. The are essential for communications and a must have for IED (Improvised Explosive Devices). To help stop this, the government should pass regulation requiring cell phone companies to collect used cell phones when a customer upgrades, with the customer's consent. This would reduce the number of cell phones around the world, especially in the US.

Not much today

I don't have much on my mind this morning. I finished my Facebook farming, watched a select few videos or YouTube and watched a little TV. It is a beautiful fall day in rural West Tennessee. I guess it's just up for the rest of the day to shape and see what happens.

VA still sucks

I recently returned from Iraq. I needed to file a claim for compensation. I got a letter in the mail a few weeks ago informing me of an appointment at the VA hospital in Memphis for a doctor to look me over. So, this morning I drove three hours to get there and was seen in about 30 minutes. Not too bad. You wait that long going to just about any doctor. I go in and sit down and this doctor asks me about a scar that I had on my head that I had gotten 20 years ago. I showed it to them, they noted it and even took pictures.

I had some more serious conditions I needed them to look at but the doctor said that i wasn't scheduled for anything except that scar. I would be getting different appointments to discuss those. Yes, but I drive 3 hours to get here and this is all you are going to do? I'm sorry that is all. She was polite, concerned and knew that it was not the best answer to give me, but that is all she could tell me. I went to the travel office and cashed in my travel voucher.

For my three hour drive, I got $97 and a few pictures. I have to go back in three days for some x-rays and an ortho appointment AFTER another 3 hour drive. It is a good thing that I am relatively healthy. I can't imagine how some veterans get to their appointments just to run into a similar problem. VA may be better, but it still has a long way to go.

America's Religious Hatred

There was quite a stir when the Delaware senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell admitted to dabbling into witchcraft. No one would have cared if she wasn't running for office, obviously. Christian American's have such a fear of any one running for political office that isn't a Christian. They, American Christians, say that people of other faiths have no moral values. They say this after they are getting dressed from sleeping with a woman who isn't their wife or talk to a lawyer because they got caught stealing. Christians demand their 1st Amendment Rights but work to take them from others. Hypocrisy is alive and well in American's Christian churches.

There is a fine line between being a Christian and being an American. It's hard for some to separate themselves from one the other. If you are a Christian, then you cannot be a good American because you are too busy trying to deny others from their religious rights. If you are an American, you have to settle with the chance that a non-Christian will trample your rights. I am an American first and a Christian always. I know the fine line. You can be a good American and a good Christian. Some need to just work at being better Americans and better Christians.

A Dark Passion Play

For most Americans, music is Europe is largely unknown. Often times we equate music in Europe as being decades behind. It is time that we looked again. I have discovered a band that has been touring Europe since 1997 and had produced some of the best rock music I have heard. I know that a most people who might run across this blog have never heard of the symphonic metal bang from Finland, Nightwish. If this is the first time you are seeing that name, then you need to get their definitive album "Dark Passion Play." Once you hear the combination of metal and orchestra, I think you will be hooked.

There is no band in America that comes close to the music produced by Nightwish. Metallica's "S&M" is the closest thing that the US has that could even come close to Nightwish's power.